UPDATE: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

Firstly, Clubman and mods please re-title or move if you see fit, wasn't too sure about what to call the thread.

Ok here goes...

My mum is selling her house through a local EA. We were told it would be on myhome, fine. From the first day it went on we had to search extensively for it, it didn't come up on the first page as other houses seem to. He only took one picture of the outside house, and even that one wasn't great. We were not given an option to proof at before it went on (I'm not sure if this is an option with any EA'S). He has the house down as 'in need of some updating' which is fine as it could do with a new bathroom suite. He never mentioned that there is a quite new fitted kitchen, wooden floors upstairs etc. He didn't measure the house and put it in at 1300 sq ft although we think its 1450ish. I have got on to him about it and he pretty much rubbished myhome saying that only timewasters use it. He has had a couple of views on it since it went up for sale 2 weeks ago, but no bids as yet. He said that people are saying its priced too high at 500k and wants to drop the price to 450k. This is a 4/5 bed house and other EA'S in the area have 3 bed semi's in similar conditions priced at that.

What I'm asking you guys is, is this normal for EA's and should we drop the price? Also would you use myhome? I personally found my house from using it and find it excellent so was a little baffled by his comments on it.

Thanks in advance.

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

Everybody I know who has bought a house in the past year has used myhome.ie - young and old alike. This EA does not sound like he is pushing a sale, maybe you should consider changing before it is too late! If he's so casual about it now imagine what he'll be like to deal with down the line!

Surely he was the one who valued the house originally at €500K?! He sounds like a fool!

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

It very much sounds like you need to take decisive action now – drop your present EA and go with someone else (or as others argue on this board, consider going it alone). Indecision/Inertia now could cause you a lot of stress and cost you a lot of money.

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

roxy said:

He only took one picture of the outside house, and even that one wasn't great.

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I got my gaff at a 10-20% discount to market BECAUSE of a terrible photo. The place looked 20 years older and really grim. 2k worth of outside painting later and it was looking 100k better .

Take some good photos yourselves (on a nice sunny day it helps) and make sure the EA uploads them pronto to myHome . Then see what the offers are like and the general interest .

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

roxy said:

My mum is selling her house through a local EA. We were told it would be on myhome, fine. From the first day it went on we had to search extensively for it, it didn't come up on the first page as other houses seem to. He only took one picture of the outside house, and even that one wasn't great. We were not given an option to proof at before it went on (I'm not sure if this is an option with any EA'S). He has the house down as 'in need of some updating' which is fine as it could do with a new bathroom suite. He never mentioned that there is a quite new fitted kitchen, wooden floors upstairs etc. He didn't measure the house and put it in at 1300 sq ft although we think its 1450ish. I have got on to him about it and he pretty much rubbished myhome saying that only timewasters use it. He has had a couple of views on it since it went up for sale 2 weeks ago, but no bids as yet. He said that people are saying its priced too high at 500k and wants to drop the price to 450k. This is a 4/5 bed house and other EA'S in the area have 3 bed semi's in similar conditions priced at that.

What I'm asking you guys is, is this normal for EA's and should we drop the price? Also would you use myhome? I personally found my house from using it and find it excellent so was a little baffled by his comments on it.

Thanks in advance.

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I'd drop him immediately. I've never come across anyone who doesn't use myhome.ie (and I've met an awful lot of people over the last year who are buying/selling).

As things are slowing a bit for the summer, it might be that much harder to sell the house quickly. Because of that, you really need to make the most of the positive aspects of your property. This guy sounds like he couldn't give a stuff. A myhome.ie ad that only has a picture of the outside of the house, and claims it needs some updating would suggest that the place is a complete wreck which will require tens of thousands before you move into it. It might well be putting people off buying.

He might have a point about the price being too high, but as he seems to be so poor at everything else, I wouldn't take his word for it. Your best bet (IMO) would be to go with someone more professional immediately.

Oh, and I was selling my place earlier in the year, we were given a chance to proof the brochure before it was released. The myhome ad went up the day the pictures were taken, but the EA said that they'd change anything we wanted on it.

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

Thanks for advice so far, I'm going to print it out for my mum.


Another thing, he told us not to do a thing to the house, we went ahead and painted half the ceilings and walls cream anyway and generally freshened it up. He said 'people don't care they'll change it anyway, they just want to live in the area'. Would this be right? He hasn't appeared with these people as yet though. Can't help getting the feeling he's trying to get it for a song for his mate or something, although I know that's ridiculous thinking!

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

Witchfinder said:

I'd drop him immediately. I've never come across anyone who doesn't use myhome.ie (and I've met an awful lot of people over the last year who are buying/selling).

As things are slowing a bit for the summer, it might be that much harder to sell the house quickly. Because of that, you really need to make the most of the positive aspects of your property. This guy sounds like he couldn't give a stuff. A myhome.ie ad that only has a picture of the outside of the house, and claims it needs some updating would suggest that the place is a complete wreck which will require tens of thousands before you move into it. It might well be putting people off buying.

He might have a point about the price being too high, but as he seems to be so poor at everything else, I wouldn't take his word for it. Your best bet (IMO) would be to go with someone more professional immediately.

I'd listen to him if he wasn't so bloody hard to listen to, he talks and talks but never actually gives you the answer you know?

Oh, and I was selling my place earlier in the year, we were given a chance to proof the brochure before it was released. The myhome ad went up the day the pictures were taken, but the EA said that they'd change anything we wanted on it.

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He told me he'd have to pay again to put the ad up, but 'he didn't mind because he wanted to get the best price price for my mum' HUH, By lowering it?

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

roxy said:

Can't help getting the feeling he's trying to get it for a song for his mate or something, although I know that's ridiculous thinking!

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It has happened in places I know of . One lad I knew rang his EA with 'an offer' and his EA never told him he received an offer . The EA was buying land for a developer mate in the area is why.

He rang the EA a second time , he made a slightly higher offer. Never heard spit from the EA .

He had recorded both conversations and he sacked the EA , the EA rang him looking for money and he played back the recordings

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

2Pack said:

It has happened in places I know of . One lad I knew rang his EA with 'an offer' and his EA never told him he received an offer . The EA was buying land for a developer mate in the area is why.

He rang the EA a second time , he made a slightly higher offer. Never heard spit from the EA .

He had recorded both conversations and he sacked the EA , the EA rang him looking for money and he played back the recordings

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This post will be deleted if not edited immediately 2pack, don't be telling me that, now I really am worried! Good call on the recordings though, I bet that showed him.

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

You need to be 100% happy and confident with your EA or it will haunt you after the house is sold. Sack him without delay. Make a few appointments with some other EAs (local and big names) and decide who you and your mum feel most comfortable with in terms of attitude, service and competitiveness. Explain to them upfront that you had the house on the market with X but you weren't impressed with how they were handling the sale. In the long run, you [and your mum] will definitely be happier and most probably financially better off. The EA I used recently came back to take pictures on a nicer day and sent me a draft of the myhome ad which was up on myhome within 2 hours of me giving the OK. Sack your EA.

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

roxy said:

He told me he'd have to pay again to put the ad up, but 'he didn't mind because he wanted to get the best price price for my mum' HUH, By lowering it?

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Yeah, see, if this guy was any kind of professional he would have given you a list of the services he provides which would include (or not) placing an ad on myhome.ie (and keeping it up!).

On the point about the painting, it'd be reasonable to tell someone not to spend too much on redoing a house, because it won't add that much to the value, but if it's a fairly quick and relatively cheap job, and the house does need some doing up, it's probably a good idea. A tatty-looking place can lose a lot of customers on first impressions, and any estate agent worth his salt should tell you that.

From what you're saying it sounds like he's either utterly incompetent, or he's trying to stitch you up for a mate (as has been suggested). Is he an independent, or does he work for one of the big groups (don't mention the name if he does though!)?

Either way, get rid of him.

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

I'm know I'm going off the point a bit, but i'm not overjoyed at the pictures of my house on myhome.ie, I honestly don't think they show it in it's best light. I said this to a friend who said it's the area that's important, people don't care about the pictures on the web, does anyone agree? Or should I take my own photos on a nicer day than the EA took them and insist he downloads them? Sorry again if for going off the point.

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

It sounds like he's not giving you good service. I think that most people here would suggest that the best thing is to sell the house yourself with good photos and put it on daft.ie as well as local newspapers. If you do go with an agent, you can always send them photos of the place, taken by yourself and they should put them on myhome.ie for you. I did this a couple of times before with one of the bigger agencies and they had no problem including them on the site for me.

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

Hi IMD, Just to say that i think the photos make a huge difference. We got a photographer friend to take photos of our house and he made the house look fabulous. I think this is why we literally had people queuing to see our house. Also, when people go home to talk about your house, what do they look at and show their relatives? - the brochure or the internet! So it is important to have good photos to show - it's what attracts people to your particular house in the first place.

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

I agree re the photo. The house i ended up buying i nearly didn't bother going to see because it looked tiny from the outside and the inside photo on the EA's blurb made the room look tidy because of the angle it was taken at. Seeing that I've noticed some photos on sites seem to be widened to make gardens, kitchens etc look bigger it definitely goes to show a photo is important is getting somebody interested.

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

Thrifty said:

Seeing that I've noticed some photos on sites seem to be widened to make gardens

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One EA I know of always photoshops their property photos to make the sky BLUE. This is a big help selling a property in the west of Ireland

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

Listen. Get rid of this fool now. He has no interest in you or your house only his 1% in a few weeks time. Get rid of him. Why should you pay someone thousands and thousands of euro for doing absolutely nothing but upset you??

You can move to someone else but I would sell it yourself on Daft.ie if I were you. It's not difficult and you will save yourself thousands.

Also, and I've said this before, if the house is in the dublin or commuter belt area then it doesn't matter if you value the house at €0.10 as it will be the market who will decide what your house is worth. Not you and you can be 100% sure it ain't gonna be the EA. People that are buying in the area know what prices houses are making and will bid accordingly so you will get the market value regardless of what that pleb in the EA says.

My advice would be to get rid of him today. In fact ring him right now. Wear sunscreen.

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

Thanks for that, yes I'm going to take my own photos and insist on them going in as I'm really not happy with them. Cheers.

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

lmd said:

Thanks for that, yes I'm going to take my own photos and insist on them going in as I'm really not happy with them. Cheers.

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And then pay him thousands and thousands for not doing what you hired him to do and had to do yourself.

For the love of god will you ring another agent and get them to come out to you and get rid of this cowboy. You're only encouraging him by doing this. Oh sweet jebus, I need to lie down.

Re: Advice re myhome.ie and Estate Agents

My house went sale agreed recently and in fairness the agent were pretty good and got us sale agreed within a few days in excess of the figure we were looking for but having said that if your mothers house is in a desirable area - it should really be selling itself and its all about making the house as visible as possible to potential buyers.

The frightening thing is that the agent made approx 5k (1% + VAT was the agreed rate) for what amounts to 8 days hard work, this compared to the amount of paperwork etc that the solicitor is putting in for conveyancing for sale and purchase (and the solicitor's getting less money!)

Having said all that, like I say, am happy with what the EA did and pushed them from the outset as needed a quick sale and let them know what I required of them to justify the fee - definitly get rid of this guy , sounds like he'll cost your mother money more in the longrun!