Saying that, why do agents put properties on the LBC which have compromis agreed written across the photo on them? Obviously they are not for sale any longer and I noticed several properties that had been recently sold still being advertised months later givingpeople a false sense of what is out there.
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I assume itâs advertising: Look, we sold this; itâs an example of the properties we have âŚ
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[quote=âAncient_Mariner, post:40, topic:43143â]
Leggett are also bad about marking properties sold,
IMO, Leggett are also bad about marketing properties,
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I canât comment specifically on that.
The biggest issue with Leggett is the professionalism and experience of the agents themselves, most are not qualified and often have another income as they are employed on a commission only basis, get a bad agent and youâre in for a tough time. I speak as someone who knows many Leggett agents in the area and also having recently sold our house through them.
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We have remained friends with ours afterwards - she put a lot of effort in to sorting out the shortcomings of the vendor.
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For what it is worth, we had a similar experience in Ireland recently, but knowing a little more about how auctioneers (aka estate agents) operate in Ireland, and the Irish property market, I have become slightly less aggrieved by the way the system operates:
- very few properties for sale, in fact demand far outstrips supply ;
- due to the high demand, most auctioneers donât need to contact prospective buyers, they are inundated with visits from local prospective buyers as soon as something goes on the market (sometimes even before it officially goes on the market) ;
- Irish estate agents are generally uncomfortable with reaching out to non-English speaking (or perceived as such) foreign-based potential clients, or are unable to do so because their mobile phones are blocked, or blocked, against making or receiving calls to/from non-IE phone numbers ;
- the commission system for Irish auctioneers is pretty poor, from what we have been told by some auctioneers, on average about 2% of the sale price, which means that there is not a huge motivation to reach out to buyers, which in turn fits snugly into the high demand/low availability of the Irish market.
Obviously, the above is particular to Ireland in some respects, but the whole contacting prospective buyers thing seems to be a fairly common denominator.
In the end, we had to do all the legwork, and we could only organise visits when we were actually in the country. Even then, it was complicated by holidays, part-time working (many smaller estate agents have other jobs in Ireland, even if they belong to a franchise), and general lack of availability to show properties with less than a weeks notice.
Iâm afraid with regard to France, you might just have to bite the bullet - periods to avoid house hunting in France would probably be Easter, May (bank holidays and long weekends), and in general any French school holidays, including the summer months of July and August, as well as the Christmas period. Of course, there are always exceptions to prove the rule and you might get lucky!
Seems to be a common trend shared with Irish estate agents on Daft.ie
Yes, we got this as well when we were looking around here. Even though we carefully communicated what our needs were and how much we had to spend, some agents tried to show us completely unsuitable ruins. One guy tried to show us a tiny house with no roof and a tree growing out of it with about 5 hectares of land and a barn that was, no joke, about 850m2 in size. We were actually looking for a modern bungalow with about 400-800m2 of land. We didnât look at the property and didnât go back.
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Lol i would say unbelievable but we had the same her in Spain many years ago 
I think that agents, being paid by the Seller, feel the need to bring any breathing, half interested potential Buyers to view a property in order to show the Seller how they are working for their commission.
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I think that some agents just have a very fixed view of what UK buyers should want, and just donât really listen.
My example was at the extreme end of the range of properties we were shown (or rather not shown), but it wasnât the only property that went completely against our brief that we were shown.
We spent 4 months looking for our property and rented here whilst we searched. The irony of the whole search was that we eventually viewed and bought a property that I had seen online 7 months earlier whilst we were in the UK, selling up and planning the move to France.
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We finally bought during the pandemic, and I had completed significant research via Google Earth prior to viewings. We had limited time to view so didnât want to waste it.
We also only viewed properties which we had already shortlisted, so werenât shown anything which didnât âmeet the briefâ.
Agents were fairly helpful, but properties were flying off the shelf so agents didnât even bother with a hard sellâŚwhich was quite nice actually.
I would suggest that research before you arrive is the most important thing. Good luck!
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Hi
Yes good advice , the main problem is i am shortlisting but getting no reply.
Also i use Google earth but if you do not have address they are fairly hard to find. Though i admit i am not great on that side of things.
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Tranmere needs the help of a property searcher.
Do they still exist? Thatâs exactly who I used when I came over, but this was 16 years ago. OH trawled the internet day after day, we sorted through those we thought were possibilities and then she (the property searcher) set up my appointments for me with various estate agents here and organised my week - I saw 5-6 properties a day and the one we now live in I saw on the Friday. 
Oh dear. I see that your post has led to the usual amount of agent-bashing that some people seem to love.
I have said it before, but the system used in France whereby estate agents use and abuse their agents commerciaux - they are mostly reliant on a share of the commission: no sale = no income - conspires to give clients a very poor deal.
The agent will ask one of their young agents commerciaux to get in touch with a client who is on a prospection tour, for example, and the young person will weigh up whether itâs worth their while dropping everyjting and looking after the client. Budget, seriousness and project will all determine the speed of the response. Most of these âagentsâ have another day job just to keep afloat so they will want reassurance that the client is a potential buyer and not just a property tourist.
This is where the real agent immobilier comes in. She (or he) is in charge of the agency and has the legal qualifications, experience and know-how that her agents commerciaux may not.
Buyers should go directly to the top: ask to speak with the agent immobilier (she who has the licence - the carte transactions) and explain what you are looking for.
Incidentally, as an agent immobilier I have never employed an agent commercial as I donât believe that people should work for nothing : itâs too 19th century. Clients of my agency have to deal directly with me: I show every property personally to my clients and make sure that they can speak with the vendors as well. I NEVER show a property that the client has not asked to view.
The other side of the coin is, of course, buyers who make appointments but donât show up or cancel at the last minute. They donât care that I have driven 200 kms to meet them or have postponed other engagements. Or the ones who donât know the difference between a gite and a chambre dâhĂ´tes, or those who insist on buying land to prevent out-siders building next to them (practically impossible in rural France) ⌠I could go on.
My experience so far, in case it helps:
Searching in person without a plan or timeline is difficult, at least since we only look whilst on brief holidays. Iâve found it easier to browse the usual websites, narrow down choices, and then make contact. If thereâs not a walk-through video or 3D tour, I ask for one. I also ask for viewings on specific days, if available. Iâve become a pro at locating properties on Google Earth, which helps us to decide whether or not to bother contacting an agent. 
After the initial glitter of house hunting wore off, I made a list with our must-haves, would-be-nices, and deal breakers. I try to keep that list in mind when browsing online. I save photos and links of listings I think would be worthwhile to visit if theyâre still available the next time we visit.
The agencies listed above that cater to English-speaking clients were the fastest to respond and never ignored a request for information. I was turned off by BVâs immediate phone call and intrusive questions, though, particularly the badgering about whether we want help with financing. One agency we contacted turned out to be a retired British couple with their own company.
Only one agency never replied at all, despite us reaching out in both English and French. We had found the property on Google Earth after seeing the listing, drove by, and really liked it. We were tempted to write to the owners and tell them the agency had never replied, but decided it wasnât worth our time.
Still hunting, but not as seriously as before because life sometimes gets in the way.
My Leggett agent was very good. Although she was aware I had funds in place and was not wasting time. I had been exploring the area on various visits for the previous three years.
Having said that, earlier this week my house, bought 6 January, was still shown as Sale Agreed on the interweb.
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Ours, bought Feb 2022 remained on until the beginning of this year.