A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog post titled Why I would rather poke my eye out with a sharp stick than buy a property with an estate agent.
In that piece, I shared how the property I thought I was buying had been ripped from underneath me. Having shelled out a load of money and gone through what I thought was the sales process, I believed I was buying the property imminently.
It wasn’t to be. Unbeknown to me, the estate agents had decided to sell the property for a higher price to somebody else. However, they had conveniently forgotten to tell me. It was only when the new buyer’s solicitor contacted my solicitor that the truth was outed.
I was furious, as you can probably tell. Out of pocket, out of faith and back to the auction rooms I went. And that is where I have stayed ever since.
But there comes a point in every girl’s life when a particular postcode warrants attention, a particular street where you just want to live, and a property at auction simply is not forthcoming.
That is the only reason I have now found myself, once more, in the situation of trying to buy a property with an estate agent. It is not an experience I am enjoying. Even the day the offer got accepted – following a bidding war against another keen buyer – was not one of jubilation. Trepidation is what now fills my days, as I wade through the sluggish process that is buying a property by private treaty.
The whole property buying and selling process is based on trust, of which – from my previous experiences – I have very little. The situation is made worse by friends offering their views on the reputations of various agents involved in these and other transactions. I do not know if the other bidder ever existed or if they ever actually put forward an offer.
This is unlike the auction room. In the auction room you get to see your competition and feel duly exasperated that they have the gall to still be bidding against you for the same property. The under-bidder is not a figment of your imagination, nor some claimed being who the estate agent said was there and who also wanted the property.
Confidence. Certainty. Speed. Transparency. That is what the auction process gives you. Those are the fundamental things you need in a transaction and when it comes to property and the massive sums of money involved, you need those things in spades.
Uncertainty: that just about sums up my current experience of buying with an estate agent. Despite shelling out for solicitors and mortgage fees, I am no closer to actually owning the property than when I had the offer accepted. And there is nothing I can do until everyone goes through the motions and we finally get to exchange.
In the private treaty world, there is no shortcut to success, unless you are a cash-rich buyer. Alas I need finance, which means I have to wait patiently for various bits of paper to get shuffled about, while I hope and pray the vendors do not change their minds, and that the agent does not convince them the market has risen and they should ask for more money.
And there is the fear of being shafted, and the knowledge and experiences of sharp practices (which encourages equally sharp practices from buyers). Why should any buyer remain monogamous to a purchase when there is no commitment?
Hope and trust. That is what the entire English and Welsh property buying and selling process is based upon. In the modern world, is this enough for a multi-billion-pound industry to have at its foundations?
Given that approximately one in three property sales fail, the odds are stacked unfavourably. It is not just the lost money on fees and surveys that causes anguish – although this usually adds up to at least a couple of grand. It is the whole process that is unbearably and unnecessarily stressful.
Absurd. Ludicrous. Ridiculous. That’s my take on buying property by private treaty.
I hope I am proved wrong.
Samantha Collett is a private investor and author. Read her blog at www.whatsamsawtoday.com
