Today I'm angry about.....

[thebish]

I'm guessing that the trouble is that most estate agents don't have the time to go and offer personalised advice to each house seller on their books. In addition I suspect in a lot of cases there isn't much that can be done to shift the house. I realise that on telly there will be a mountain of advice from Phil Spencer etc but I suspect the cold hard realities of many situations are, reduce the price, tidy it up, wait a long time.

aye - but what actually DO they do?

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I'm guessing that the trouble is that most estate agents don't have the time to go and offer personalised advice to each house seller on their books. In addition I suspect in a lot of cases there isn't much that can be done to shift the house. I realise that on telly there will be a mountain of advice from Phil Spencer etc but I suspect the cold hard realities of many situations are, reduce the price, tidy it up, wait a long time.

aye - but what actually DO they do?

play golf?

[mrkint]

I'm guessing that the trouble is that most estate agents don't have the time to go and offer personalised advice to each house seller on their books. In addition I suspect in a lot of cases there isn't much that can be done to shift the house. I realise that on telly there will be a mountain of advice from Phil Spencer etc but I suspect the cold hard realities of many situations are, reduce the price, tidy it up, wait a long time.

aye - but what actually DO they do?

make money off other people's laziness.

[Il Pirate]

I generally dump the car in Chiswick and get the tube in.

And that's why I can never park outside my lad's house. (Neither can he for that matter).

Does he live on Gordon Road?

Nah Bruce. Chatsworth Rd

[Il Pirate]

I generally dump the car in Chiswick and get the tube in.

And that's why I can never park outside my lad's house. (Neither can he for that matter).

Why don't you use the quote function, out of interest?

Dunno Mummy...............

Truth is, I like to mix it up a bit. Live on the edge...........

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

I'm guessing that the trouble is that most estate agents don't have the time to go and offer personalised advice to each house seller on their books. In addition I suspect in a lot of cases there isn't much that can be done to shift the house. I realise that on telly there will be a mountain of advice from Phil Spencer etc but I suspect the cold hard realities of many situations are, reduce the price, tidy it up, wait a long time.

aye - but what actually DO they do?

Lie.

In the case of Dubai, they go beyond lying, fraudulent would describe a great many of the wankers

[Il Pirate]

I'm guessing that the trouble is that most estate agents don't have the time to go and offer personalised advice to each house seller on their books. In addition I suspect in a lot of cases there isn't much that can be done to shift the house. I realise that on telly there will be a mountain of advice from Phil Spencer etc but I suspect the cold hard realities of many situations are, reduce the price, tidy it up, wait a long time.

aye - but what actually DO they do?

...and that is exactly what I'm wondering Bish. Two out three agents didn't bother to turn up to give a valuation yesterday as arranged. One didn't even bother to phone to say why they couldn't make it, they just didn't turn up. Another did phone, but said he would have to change the appointment to Thursday, 'no you can't, I'm not going to be in' I said. 'Well if you want us to offer a valuation, Thursday is the only this week I can do'. Said he. 'I thought the idea was, when giving a valuation, you are also trying to get my business'? 'If you can't do Thursday, you'll have to make another appointment, hopefully I can fit you in, er, middle of next week?' Er..no I don't think so. The one who did come, looked around, made some encouraging noises, told me of his firms charges, ( plus VAT of course!); and had to go away to 'work out a good valuation for both seller and buyer'!!!??? WTF? ' I'll be in touch first thing in the morning'.........He hasn't.
So now, I have to phone the other estate agents in town I didn't want to phone to begin with, to make further appointments for them to ( hopefuly), value the feckin' place. Which means more tidying and more cleaning and getting told off for leaving everyday objects on sideboards, kitchen worktops, etc; which normaly would stay in situ for months......

[Bruce Rioja]

When I moved I used Bridgfords (as did the woman that I bought my current house off) and I have to say they were very good and communicated well all along. Furthermore, they didn't send any tyre-kickers round and overall I'd be happy to recommend them.

However, being as I don't have any particular ties to any one solicitor (mine sold up and retired) I agreed to use Bridgfords sister company, Propertywide, to carry out the conveyancing.

For the love of God please don't get involved with this absolute shambles of an outfit. You'd like to think that these people might have your interests at heat - believe me they couldn't care less. I could could go on and on about them, but just to give you a flavour, on more than one occasion they managed to lose my file resulting in me having to fill in all the paperwork again, lost a cheque for around £400, but perhaps worst of all was them having to put the completion date back a week, two weeks before I was about to move, because they simply hadn't got their shit together.

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm guessing that the trouble is that most estate agents don't have the time to go and offer personalised advice to each house seller on their books. In addition I suspect in a lot of cases there isn't much that can be done to shift the house. I realise that on telly there will be a mountain of advice from Phil Spencer etc but I suspect the cold hard realities of many situations are, reduce the price, tidy it up, wait a long time.

aye - but what actually DO they do?

Value your house, advertise it, arrange viewings, attend viewings, negotiate offers, check the buyers credentials, and once an offer is accepted liaise between parties to get to exchange and completion.

Which in terms of you as a customer isn't all that much I agree. Suspect the problem is that they are all understaffed and overworked.

[thebish]

I'm guessing that the trouble is that most estate agents don't have the time to go and offer personalised advice to each house seller on their books. In addition I suspect in a lot of cases there isn't much that can be done to shift the house. I realise that on telly there will be a mountain of advice from Phil Spencer etc but I suspect the cold hard realities of many situations are, reduce the price, tidy it up, wait a long time.

aye - but what actually DO they do?

Value your house, advertise it, arrange viewings, attend viewings, negotiate offers, check the buyers credentials, and once an offer is accepted liaise between parties to get to exchange and completion.

and what do they do AFTER 11am??

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm guessing that the trouble is that most estate agents don't have the time to go and offer personalised advice to each house seller on their books. In addition I suspect in a lot of cases there isn't much that can be done to shift the house. I realise that on telly there will be a mountain of advice from Phil Spencer etc but I suspect the cold hard realities of many situations are, reduce the price, tidy it up, wait a long time.

aye - but what actually DO they do?

Value your house, advertise it, arrange viewings, attend viewings, negotiate offers, check the buyers credentials, and once an offer is accepted liaise between parties to get to exchange and completion.

and what do they do AFTER 11am??

Down to the numbers they are dealing with though isn't it.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Our half-year results have been published, and the finance department has had its sticky fingers all over them. My group has exceeded its targets by 300%, as I knew we would as our major contract has just been renewed and expanded (as planned). So is my boss happy? Is he fxck! "What were you thinking of?" - he's whinging. The drift of his moan being that he'll have to work harder now for next year and secure more contracts because the board will increase our targets because we've exceeded them by so much this year. This time last year, in the final year of a major contract (and subsequent inevitable reduction in margins achieved) they were whinging because we'd underperformed and only hit 80% of our target. The Finance tossers then reduced the target (for this year) because of our underperformance, even though they knew a large contract was upcoming. Why do they bother with targets, why not just be happy with a profit? - we make one of them every fxckin' year.

[mrkint]

I've always wondered if you could drop somebody from a planned economy in the ex-soviet states into a target-orientated office environment now the ethic wouldn't be much different. Do feck all for most of the time and then wrok like the clappers until you reach your target (productivity or profit)

[BWFC_Insane]

Our half-year results have been published, and the finance department has had its sticky fingers all over them. My group has exceeded its targets by 300%, as I knew we would as our major contract has just been renewed and expanded (as planned). So is my boss happy? Is he fxck! "What were you thinking of?" - he's whinging. The drift of his moan being that he'll have to work harder now for next year and secure more contracts because the board will increase our targets because we've exceeded them by so much this year. This time last year, in the final year of a major contract (and subsequent inevitable reduction in margins achieved) they were whinging because we'd underperformed and only hit 80% of our target. The Finance tossers then reduced the target (for this year) because of our underperformance, even though they knew a large contract was upcoming. Why do they bother with targets, why not just be happy with a profit? - we make one of them every fxckin' year.

Thats capitalism!

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I've always wondered if you could drop somebody from a planned economy in the ex-soviet states into a target-orientated office environment now the ethic wouldn't be much different. Do feck all for most of the time and then wrok like the clappers until you reach your target (productivity or profit)

It does seem like five-year planning at times. Especially when the corporate slogans get wheeled out, as they do, on a rotating basis. At the moment it's all about sustainability. Give us a break.

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

Our half-year results have been published, and the finance department has had its sticky fingers all over them. My group has exceeded its targets by 300%, as I knew we would as our major contract has just been renewed and expanded (as planned). So is my boss happy? Is he fxck! "What were you thinking of?" - he's whinging. The drift of his moan being that he'll have to work harder now for next year and secure more contracts because the board will increase our targets because we've exceeded them by so much this year. This time last year, in the final year of a major contract (and subsequent inevitable reduction in margins achieved) they were whinging because we'd underperformed and only hit 80% of our target. The Finance tossers then reduced the target (for this year) because of our underperformance, even though they knew a large contract was upcoming. Why do they bother with targets, why not just be happy with a profit? - we make one of them every fxckin' year.

Thats capitalism!

A meaningless thing to say.

It suggests to me that LLS's boss doesn't have his incentives structured properly/is too comfortable in his role.

[Prufrock]

Estate Agents. Need more be said!!???

never having bought or sold a house - I've never used one personally - though I have been involved with them in the sale/rent of church property..

strikes me that they could do SO much more.

there was a series of programs on recently where "phil" (from phil and kirsty) helped people sell their homes. invariably he would talk to the estate agent about why the house was not selling - and the estate agent would appear to have no clue at all and have no suggestions other than reducing the offer price.

phil would go into the house and discover a dozen OBVIOUS reasons that the house wasn't selling (oh look - you've got a rotting dead cat in the bath!) - and fix them - and then the house would sell...

why isn't it seen as OBVIOUS that an estate agent would do that in the first place - proactively work with people to sell their houses. how hard can it be to visit a house every 2 weeks or so and make suggestions? you'd think it was in the estate agents interests, no? (unless i am missing how estate agents make their money - which quite possibly I am!)

Coz they get paid by commission! An extra £5k to you is about £50 to them. Not worth the hassle. They want a lot of sales, even if they're cheap. It's Freakonomics man!

[thebish]

Estate Agents. Need more be said!!???

never having bought or sold a house - I've never used one personally - though I have been involved with them in the sale/rent of church property..

strikes me that they could do SO much more.

there was a series of programs on recently where "phil" (from phil and kirsty) helped people sell their homes. invariably he would talk to the estate agent about why the house was not selling - and the estate agent would appear to have no clue at all and have no suggestions other than reducing the offer price.

phil would go into the house and discover a dozen OBVIOUS reasons that the house wasn't selling (oh look - you've got a rotting dead cat in the bath!) - and fix them - and then the house would sell...

why isn't it seen as OBVIOUS that an estate agent would do that in the first place - proactively work with people to sell their houses. how hard can it be to visit a house every 2 weeks or so and make suggestions? you'd think it was in the estate agents interests, no? (unless i am missing how estate agents make their money - which quite possibly I am!)

Coz they get paid by commission! An extra £5k to you is about £50 to them. Not worth the hassle. They want a lot of sales, even if they're cheap. It's Freakonomics man!

aye - but if they want a lot of sales - surely it is in their interest to do everything they can to get a house sold?

[bwfcdan94]

Not so much angry as disappointed. Started my course today only to find out A:there is only 5 other people on the course and B:it is only 12 hours of actual teaching time a week. Obviously I will intend to do more work outside of the lessons but I was hoping for a bit more teaching time. Oh well at least I have got the course. I have already started looking for accountancy jobs in the Bolton area for when I finish an move back. Those you who are accountants how far does AAT L2 and L3 actually take you, can you get a low level accountancy job with it such as accounts administrator or something.

[Beefheart]

Not so much angry as disappointed. Started my course today only to find out A:there is only 5 other people on the course and B:it is only 12 hours of actual teaching time a week. Obviously I will intend to do more work outside of the lessons but I was hoping for a bit more teaching time. Oh well at least I have got the course. I have already started looking for accountancy jobs in the Bolton area for when I finish an move back. Those you who are accountants how far does AAT L2 and L3 actually take you, can you get a low level accountancy job with it such as accounts administrator or something.

I can't say for sure as I haven't gone down the AAT route, but yes I imagine the kind of job you could get would be along the lines of a purchase/sales ledger clerk or more generally posting journals. I don't know if you have any experience of using Sage or any other accounting system but I imagine that would be of help. If you do find you have too much spare time on your hands you could look into a course in using one of those. Also, when looking for jobs bear in mind that some employers may be willing to sponsor you through an ACCA qualificaton.