Calling all estate agents

Calling all estate agents – I’ve always stuck up for you, so why punish me now?

What an exasperating weekend. Mr D and I are on the hunt for another BTL house to buy. Historically we’ve stuck to one particular ex-council estate in the town where I grew up. Like many landlords, I work on the basis that if you stick to what you know, you can’t go wrong. But of late, it’s been harder to find reasonably priced properties in the ‘right’ part of town with just the right amount of work to do (cosmetic not structural). There’s been quite a boom in the area, with a new retail park and even talk of a cinema – quite a coup in this (formerly) one horse town!

So with bargains thin on the ground, and my other half and I both working abroad or on the road most of the time, we’ve been über-organised, arranging all our viewings well in advance so we can squeeze as much into the weekend as possible. Or that was the plan.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Or in this case: ‘prepare, and fail anyway’

After much coordination of diaries to make sure Mr D and I were both in the same country/county on the same day, we turned up to the first viewing. We pootled around waiting and killing time for 15 minutes attracting suspicious stares from window-twitching neighbours before I called the agent.

Turns out, the branch manager who booked our viewing ten days ago wrote in the diary. So far so good. Alas, he did not write it in the ‘right’ diary, apparently. So with no one available to show us the houses, viewings one and two were off the menu.

“Can you do Tuesday?” asks the well-meaning estate agent? I took a deep breath and counted to ten before explaining that we both work, so can’t just do viewings as and when. Plus, I’m more likely to win the lottery than to be in the same postcode as Mr D on a weekday, without huge amounts of forward planning.

Onwards and upwards

So, we brush ourselves off, and after killing a bit more time, head to viewing number three. We stand in the cold for a while, thinking lightening can’t strike twice in the same place, before calling the agent. Turns out she’s booked us in to view the house five doors down by mistake. Trying to contain my ire, we decide we may as well view it anyway. But then there’s nobody home. Stood up at the wrong house. So why did I spend all that time on the phone last week confirming viewings if we’re going to end up standing around like idiots anyway? Deep breaths...

Explaining the situation to the agent and doing my best impression of someone with a much higher tolerance for cock-ups, I ask politely if they could come back and show us the right house later on. The charm offensive works and we re-book for lunchtime.

Viewings four and five go without a hitch, with loads of technicolour carpets, dodgy artex, pink bathroom suites and precarious ‘lean to’s to keep us entertained. Plus, we meet a fantastic agent who did her profession proud. Knowledgeable, punctual and being a fellow landlord, she really added value to the viewings with bags of local knowledge.

Second time lucky

Convinced things are looking up, we then head back to house number three. So we’re there. Check. Agent is there. Check. She has keys. Check. But hang on a sec, we can’t get in. There are sitting tenants. And we can’t enter until they’ve vacated.

[Photo courtesy of sallysue @ Creative Commons)

So we’re standing there with a very shivery estate agent getting that déjà vu feeling. “The office didn’t tell me there were tenants” she says. Hmm. I pointed out that for all she’d pulled it out of the bag squeezing in a second viewing at the end of her shift, her agency had really messed us around. As I walked away shaking my head (again) I muttered something about taking the property off the website if it wasn’t viewable, knowing I was wasting my breath. But being a pedant, I said it anyway.

So come on estate agents, dispel the stereotypes! Throw me a bone and help me spend some money.

All you have to do is show up.

Have you dealt with an estate agent who’s restored your faith in the profession? I’d love to read your comments to prepare me for round two!


Alison Doering is a north east landlord who caught the BTL bug three years ago and has never looked back. Going from zero to six properties in three years and juggling a high pressure job in marketing means every day is a school day; there’s always something new to lock away in that mental filing cabinet marked “Never do that again!”