beware of estate agents - Page 2

You are righr. Estate agents are for the SELLER.....therefore.....higher the price.....higher commision. Goes without saying. Hence private sales work out cheaper. Houses, cars, food etc etc. V

Just a thought, but this kind of dealing may be a hangover from what I understand may have been longstanding practice here. My elderly mother, who has lived here fo over 60 years, tells me in all seriousness that the way they used to buy and sell property was to tell your agent the figure that you wanted to achieve for your property (and she bought and sold several times) and whatever they could make over and above that , was theirs.

The definition of an agent....shop, car dealer. Etc. Again buy privately & cut out the middle-man (abagados aside, they always take their cut). If you have the luxury of time. Go that route....if not look for an agent. I have seen many private sales through without agents. Always with the use of a solicitor. Love them or hate them, abagados are your protection. Estate agents...NO. V.

That is so true. We sold a property about 15 years ago and the agents all asked how much we were looking for. They all added on different levels of commission and our villa was advertised at a range of prices with the highest being 15000 Euros higher than the lowest!

Silly me I thought you employed a agent to work in your best intrest

No, the Agent works in his/her own best interest to rip off both buyer and seller.

Absolutely...nail on the head. Do people complain about how much a tomatoecosts in the supermarket?

I am currently selling a house in France to move to Pinoso.  As ever there are agents canvassing for instructions.  My Instructions are always the same.  I want XXXXXX Euros.  I don't care what you sell it for. as long as I get what I want.  There are other agents with the same instructions.  Get greedy and get nothing Sell it for a realistic commission and it is more likely you get the sale as opposed to the others.  If the prospective purchaser wants the price reduced still further I may negotiate on a 50/50 split .  Drop 5000 on the price and you will drop 2500 on commission.  Hey they don't like it but they have two choices.     Rob C

We had a similar experience with regard to lying when we bought our property. The agent took us to a newly built development of apartments and the builder's sales office was still operating. She told us the apartment was going for €140k, then, whilst we were lookig around she appeared to have a conversastion with one of the sales team. She came back to us to say that the salesman had made a mistake and the apartment should actually be €160k, but that he was going to honour the lower price he initially said. This made us feel like we were getting a real bargain and we bought it. When we moved in, the builder's sales office was still operating on site and so I went in and enquired about the price of an identical apartment to ours, saying that friends were interested. It was a different sales person on duty and she told me that the price was €140k. What a cheap, nasty trick to play on clients.

It's the norm there is a estate agent on this forum that pop's out her coffin on occasion  to defend her profession so far so sign of her.

Never trust a agent any time