MR WIGGY COMES TO CALL (Estate Agents in general)

Member Name: dave27

Product:	Estate Agents in general
Date:	27/06/04 (214 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Smarmy, Useless

Men are different from women ? all that stuff about one being from Mars and the other from Venus is SOO true. The male of the species just wants an easy existence ? you know the sort of thing I mean, no kids or dogs, a few pints with his mates, footie on the box whenever he wants, and a little women to wait on his every need, while Mrs wants THINGS TO GET DONE, and you to mow the lawn, wash up, put the toilet seat down, play with the kids, walk the dog, etc, etc, ET BLEEDING CETERA?

Me and Mrs D fit very nicely into this little battle of the sexes and we?re exactly like the natural stereotypes of Mr and Mrs Normal.

She?d been nagging me for ages to move house because we needed more space, we needed to be closer to the kids? schools, she didn?t like the neighbours much (Add in your own reason ad nauseam), but I?d always remained steadfast: ?I?m not moving and that?s it, end of story.?

In the end, however, I finally relented, and you don?t need to know exactly why, believe me, but I did, and we decided (jointly) to sell our house and move on.

Now that fairly mundane decision gets you off into all sorts of disastrous adventures, not the least of which is the ?your life in their hands? experience of working with estate agents ? the profession (in the loosest sense) with one of the direst of all reputations, next to insurance men, used car salesmen and England midfielders.

Well, we had little choice and so we settled on a local agent, one whom we thought had a pretty good rep for moving houses in rapid time and gave him a call.

I soon remembered why I disliked them so much?

Bang on the dot, the nice flash car pulled up, and out came this being who reeked of after shave,
with a nice suit and the most unbelievable of all toupees, a foul dark red creation which was totally out of keeping with his wrinkly puss and glassy eyes, all set to make our dreams come true.

He was equipped with one of those electronic measuring gadgets which make life so very easy for them, and a decent line in smarmy chat, all about Man City, and how he expected them, rather than my beloved Leeds United to be going down to Div 1 (or the championship as it?s recently been renamed).

He originally wanted 1% plus VAT to shift the house, which at a valuation of £250k worked out at almost three grand. Well, Mrs D was having none of that and eventually got him to accept £1500 plus VAT. Just shows what you can achieve when you?re prepared to haggle.

Now, Mr Wiggy did indeed get us quite a few viewings, but there was a problem in that he had other properties on our estate which were very similar and so there was an immediate conflict of interest and when our next door neighbours went round to see him, as a sort of mystery shopper, she found no brochures or details and when she asked about houses on our estate they didn?t seem to know our house existed. There were also loads of mistakes from his admin people, a bunch of empty headed bimboes more interested in their nail polish than my real estate, and they just couldn?t get their act together, so we gave him a month?s notice.

Oh no, he said, I?d signed a six months exclusive deal and he would get his dosh even if we sold through another agent. At first he refused to let us have a board from another agent and caused all sorts of problems. Mrs D?s still in the midst of legal proceedings with Mr Wiggy (how unusual), so please don?t take this thing too lightly. Estate agents can quickly become the bane of your life.

None of them really care about your proper
ty so don?t be fooled by their smarmy over sincerity ? you?re just a wad of notes to them. Negotiate on the fee and be careful what you sign. Make sure you check out word of mouth references as signing up with the wrong agent can be a pretty dreadful mistake.

Happily, we?ve now signed up with an agent who we?re more comfortable with, although we haven?t actually sold yet. Hopefully, it won?t be too long before we do, and we can rid ourselves again of Mr Wiggy and his like ? SHUDDER.

Summary: