A Desk In The Sun

There probably are truthful estate agents, but the whole way the business is run pushes them towards dishonesty. In many of the places where Brits dream of owning a place in the sun they’re as likely as not being paid entirely on a commission basis. Even those agents that aren’t rewarded entirely on results still receive a very small basic salary.  
 
In practice it often only requires an average of one sale a month to provide a reasonable income for a “property consultant” or whatever they call themselves. That means your business is often really important to them, so important that bending the truth is the least they can do. Without your sale they may struggle to meet their own rent or mortgage payments.

Having said that, what most agents really dream of is the commission on a huge property. After all even if they only get 1%, when a place costs two million pounds, dollars or euros that’s 20,000 of any currency, which is a nice prize to win. Those big property sales don’t come up very often, but the commission on even a modest apartment is still measured in thousands. That’s often more than the average monthly pay in many countries.

With the sort of money on offer it’s little surprise then that you’ll be told, for instance, that local planning laws prevent anything being built to block the view from your dream home. You’ll also hear how the neighbours are quiet, parking is easy and the local school is the best in the country. Don’t believe a word unless you can get it independently verified.

It’s not always deliberate dishonesty on the part of the agent. Often they simply don’t know. As we searched for property we lost count of the number of times that we actually knew more than the “expert” who was trying to sell to us. That’s because many were even newer to the area than us.

After all a company has little to lose if it “employs” more property consultants if they’re only being paid on results. You also find many of the people you deal with are just estate agents “on the side” and hold down a variety of other jobs.

There’s even a dentist near where we live who also sells property. It’s bad enough when a dentist starts asking questions when your mouth’s full of metal. I hate to imagine what it would be like if he started listing details of property.

Incidentally, if you think I’m being hard on estate agents, just think of the process you go through if you sell your home. Do you mention the neighbours who get in at 3am shouting at each other before turning the telly on full blast? Do you spend a packet getting rid of the cause of a damp spot or paint over it in the hope it won’t show until after the sale has gone through? The whole process of selling property makes crooks of us all.

If you expect estate agents to be dishonest and incompetent you probably won’t go far wrong. In fact you’ll be pleasantly surprised if you find one who is truthful and efficient, although that wouldn’t be sufficient grounds for dispensing with a good lawyer.

Anyway, having spent this article slagging off estate agents in the next one I’ll look at how they can really help you when you’re buying a property abroad.