Three years on i vividly remember the client that has posted this review. They remain the only client we have in almost 10 years of trading we have had to say we could not continue to act for.
We first valued the property as a part exchange valuation on behalf of a national house builder, the owner decided not to take up the builders offer and instead asked us to market the property for them. The house was situated in an area we would not normally seek to cover however as it was a nice property and we were right in the middle ofa severe lack of stock at the beginning of 2008 recession we accepted the instruction at a level higher than our PX valuation and just above the stamp duty threshold. Within a few days we introduced a lady to the house who initially did reject it because she wanted a 3 bed rather than a 2 bed. This was reported back to the client, however from memory they appeared not to have accessed an answer phone message we had left. Again this could have been an oversight on thier part or a error on our part, we generally graciously accept any error is ours as the client is the client however in some cases there is a gray area. The same lady then rekindled her interest a few days later and second viewed the house resulting ina lower offer than the vendors were prepared to consider.
The vendors became very aggrieved by us presenting the offer to them, despite us having a legal duty to inform them of every offer be it a pound or 1 milllion pounds. They proceeded to vent their fustrations at a member of staff who was reduced to tears by their approach and regretably decided that after this experience estate agency was not the career for her and left. I subsequently became involved, in reality because i did not expect any member of our team to have to be spoken to in the way Cxxxxxx had be addressed. Again the conversation did not go well, the client did not take well to being asked to be more respectful to our staff and our obligations to present offers no matter how demeaning the were. I did say that the asking price was not our price but the vendors and was higher than our PX valaution. We did not push them to accept the offer but i did point out the reality of the stamp duty threshold. Again this was not well recieved and the end result was that i felt there was a complete breakdown of our relationship with this couple and that we could no longer represent them in any meangingful capacity.
I think they were gobsmacked by an agent saying this to them and the date of their posting on this site is one day after our diary record of out last phone call.
In total we marketed the house for a total of 2 weeks in the worst period for seling houses in a generation and felt we had to walk away from the business we had invested marketing funds into only a small properotion of the way into an agreed contract term due to the treatment of our team by the client. That they subsequently sold with a local agent is good news for them and i am sure we would have generated more interest in the house had we retained the instruation. The issue was not the house which as i have said was lovely but the clients aggressive approach.