Estate agents behaviou

A few weeks ago there was a very interesting documentary on BBC1 about Estate Agents - a lady went undercover - some of the behaviour of the Estate Agents was unbelievable - certainly worth a watch.

How do you know what is the best thing to do - if you don't look at properties before you have a firm offer on yours, and everyone else does the same, how does the market move at all? The good old first time buyer is then responsible for putting a squib under a whole chain of buyers and sellers - surely that would slow everything down even more than the frustrating waits people seem to have .

We allowed any viewers and ended up with 4 potential purchasers vying to be the one to sell their house first. one sold within a week and bought our house.

We had no one around who did not have their property on the market, but lots of people like us trying to buy/sell property in a depressed market.

I did most of the viewings as I knew the house better than the agent and am quite adept at tuning into what the viewers were especially interested in/didn't want and could tune my pitch accordingly.

When I sold my last house the estate agent told me to look on-line but not visit any properties until mine was under offer.
I would be annoyed in your shoes. Can you ring and stipulate only those in a position to proceed should view your house? Otherwise, change agents. Good luck.

That's unusual HDando, our experience for sometime has been that they're unwilling to book viewings with anyone who doesn't already have their house on the market.

Tell them you only want bookings for those whose house is currently on the market.