Opinions

[dave99]

Originally Posted by Rivermead Global Property

Having read many of these threads and posts it seems to me that there are many agents not fulfiling any of these points. I am amazed at the amount of people left to fend for themselves against developers and agencies. The point about websites being kept up-to-date is a good one. If you look on websites many agents put the properties on at the initial pre-release or low price and never update the price. I try to keep mine updated as much as possible and increase the price as the cheaper ones are sold. Who do you think gets all the enquiries????? It has come to a point where i feel i need to lower my standards just to make sure i get enquires through. I then read on here that all the people that have bought from other agents are now having so many problems. I have helped everyone that has got in touch with me and will continue to do so but will that stop people using these agents? No. Do i need to change my ways and start to advertise lower prices knowing they are not available, probably, yes i do.

All agents reading this any chance of updating your adverts????

Valid complaint - not that easy to fix.

I've had numerous people on the phone complaining to me about other agents web-sites with old prices - it would seem to be quite widespread in the UK.

I think most agents / developers can keep their prime sites up to date but the more obscure ones get forgotten, particulary the ones where the advertising agency does not allow a direct link back to the prime site.

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[propertastic]

I get the feeling that some developers actually use most agents' laziness as a selling point for their developments.

I have seen so many developments where they have a couple of cheap studios for sale, but then the rest of the properties are way more expensive (actually Sara's Residence is an archetypical culprit in this case, as much as I like its value for money).

So the majority of sites out there probably have Sara's Residence listed as 'from GBP15,000' or something, whereas ours is 'from GBP30,000' as this is the price for the cheapest units that are currently available these days.

I'm sure that a lot of customers just do a bit of Googling and think that we're a bunch of thieving scoundrals for trying to charge twice the price. When they approach an agent asking about the GBP15,000 units and find that they've already gone and that only GBP30,000 units are available, I can imagine that a lot of them just carry on the conversation rather than come back to us and the other sites that update info on a daily basis and so we lose out.

Oh well, win some, lose some, I guess.

[realestatemart]

I agree wit you Egypt Real some agents and sites do this to attract clients to get in contact with and then tell the client OHHHH the unit with this price just sold now we have so ans so with real pricesa and availabilities that uptodate sites got it so some lazy clients go on with this agent whereas other clever clients see its cheating and can't trust so those who decide to contimue only with updated and clear agents are the clever ones i guess

[dave99]

Originally Posted by realestatemart

I agree wit you Egypt Real some agents and sites do this to attract clients to get in contact with and then tell the client OHHHH the unit with this price just sold now we have so ans so with real pricesa and availabilities that uptodate sites got it so some lazy clients go on with this agent whereas other clever clients see its cheating and can't trust so those who decide to contimue only with updated and clear agents are the clever ones i guess

Lowest priced unit not being available - this is true in many marketing campaigns not just real estate.

The problem is that if one agent / developer does the lowest price advert then many more HAVE to do it to compete. Most buyers are aware that this happens but they are still very annoyed once they decide to actually phone up and ask. If the diffence is not too big then maybe thats acceptable but maybe a 30% differences is too much.

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[Peter Mitry]

Dave99 is right all agents and Developers advertise a range of prices from the lowest to the highest but it is always the cheaper ones that sell first. This means that unless you are in control of your website it quickly becomes out of date. Its the same with advertising boards outside projects; they are quickly out of date as sales progress and prices rise.

[realestatemart]

I hope they can even update the signs as it cost nothing should be updtaed and honest not leave it sooooo old