Owning your own home

Anyone want to go and see the flat at 7pm and see what he says?

It's worth remembering that it is not your agent, but the seller's.

Contacting the seller directly may get you more traction.

Oh right, I see, missed Jeez's point^.
A good point it is too

I've had it up to my back teeth with estate agents recently. Apart from having to take one to court for being lying money grabbing bastards back in February I've had the pleasure of listening to another estate agency as they show twenty or so people round the flat I currently live in. I reckon 50% of the potential buyers who come in to see the flat are misled by the agent in some way. Some of the agents have tried to pressurise buyers into a decision on the spot as if anybody is going to go "oh yes ok, I'll give you £350k for this flat I've been standing in for thirty seconds because you said loads of other people want to buy it! Let me go fetch my money van!".

On the plus side, some of the buyers that have viewed the flat have been really nice and also really put the agents on the spot on occasion.

He's got viewings at 7pm this evening, I suspect he wants to show more people the flat (and tell them there's been an offer already) before passing on my offer.

I imagine he'll do just this, along with "It's a strong offer and I'll be passing it to the seller tomorrow at ten if you want to get an offer in before then"

They need to be regulated out of the process - some kind of flat fee where they have no skin in the game over the price of the house they're selling.

I've heard all sorts of bullshit from agents on viewings, as far as I'm concerned you can ignore the cunts and just be as canny as you can, ideally the vendor will be hanging around and up for answering any questions

I had one agent let themself in without knocking and she didn't even have the courtesy to introduce herself...she just breezed past me and started showing the buyer around the flat.

I stood in between the agent and the buyer and asked "Could you please try to maintain the basic dignity of ringing the doorbell waiting to be let in to my home? I don't even know who you are" The agent replied "Oh you didn't think I was a burglar did you?" in a patronising voice. The buyer then commented that she thought it was rude too. I was in a foul mood so I asked the agent to leave my flat, ring the doorbell and "try again". The buyer went to leave with the agent (laughing) but I told him that he was ok to stay, it wasn't him who was being rude.

Unbelievable.

You should have put a lighter to their shiny polyester suit.

should have made the agent wait outside and show the person round yourself

^^^ your buyer changed gender halfway through the conversation?

^^^ your buyer changed gender halfway through the conversation?

He/she was that shocked

should have made the agent wait outside and show the person round yourself

that would have been fantastic.

^^^ your buyer changed gender halfway through the conversation?

He/she was that shocked

Dropped right off onto the floor. It was very awkward. Had to fight the cat for it.

In Australia it works something like:

Make an offer, pending legals.
Offer accepted = legally binding contract for both parties (none of this English gazump/gazunder shit)
Buyer has to pay a deposit and seller then has to open up place for building surveys and shit.
If surveys all go well, buyer is legally obliged to complete and seller is legally obliged to complete

Something like that anyway.

That's a big IF. What happens when stuff crops up in the survey that needs to be resolved before completion?

He knows next to nothing about the building it's in, has failed to find out the (perfectly reasonable) information I've asked for, has failed to call me back or reply to emails every single time I've contacted him, and although I made my offer at 11.30 this morning, he's just this minute texted (!) me to say that he'll be speaking to the vendor later and will call me then.
He's got viewings at 7pm this evening, I suspect he wants to show more people the flat (and tell them there's been an offer already) before passing on my offer.

And he spelt the name of his own agency wrong in his text

Kate, is it an open showing at 7pm?

Pretty much I think- do you wanna go and see it? A quick call to the office [URL="http://www.acorn.ltd.uk/property_for_sale.asp?strFileRef=157615&location=Bath%20Close%20London%20SE15"][/URL]wouldn't hurt but it'll be a group thing (like they did yesterday and on Saturday)

sorry can't go now, c and k just walked in.

no worries, give them a big kiss from me

http://youtu.be/dYAqFDPJLIw

Is there a thread about getting council housing? If so I can't find it.

If the programme I saw on the telly the other night is accurate, the quick answer is 'You can't have one'.

This page is on the Shelter website about how councils may score your application: http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/finding_a_place_to_live/council_housing/who_gets_priority

From scanning through the Shelter site you are allowed to apply if you are a British citizen and meet the scoring criteria- which would appear to be that you are suffering significant hardship of some kind or kinds.

Radar: that was in the automated response I got when I submitted the application. A few more words, but essentially that was it.

Thanks for the link Dammit. But applying is not limited to British people:

You can usually apply for a council home if you are living and settled in the UK and you are:

• a British citizen, or
  
• a citizen of another country with the right to stay in the UK with no restrictions on how long you can stay.
  

@ radar what programme was it?