Don't use KFH Northcote Road to try to sell your house... Post Reply

[Genie]

Hello all

I've just had a bizarre experience with KFH, the estate agents based in Northcote Road. I contacted them to ask to view a flat they're selling, and before they would set this up, they asked me for all sorts of details (am I selling a house myself, how much notice do I have to give, have I got a mortgage broker, what types of properties am I looking for...) Most agents ask for these details, of course, as it is a way to widen their potential customer base, sell more diverse products, increase their mailing lists for spam. All understandable. I politely refused to answer these questions, as I don't want any more spam, emails full of their other listings, nor sales contacts from other agents in their office, from mortgage brokers, etc; at which point the agent refused to let me view the property.


If I were a seller, I would want to know that my agents were actually turning away potential buyers because the buyers did not want to be sent listings of other properties or cold calls from mortgage brokers.

There are many, many, many other estate agents in nappy valley who would actually work for you, instead of for themselves, and I encourage you to give your business to one of them, rather than KFH.

[foodeditorjo]

It's common practice for an agent to want / need to know that people viewing are serious potential buyers. Otherwise you could have other motives for wanting to look round? It's standard. If not, they're wasting their time showing people round who may not be in a position to buy or put in an offer. It's nothing to do with cold calling or spamming... !

[supergirl]

As much as I hate spams, i agree with PP. they have to do it to turn away time wasters.
FYI, we have bought, Sell and bought again with then and were happy enough with them.
What we dont like about Estate Agents is the unregulated profession as a whole - but thats another thread

[ConfusedInClapham]

I would tend to agree although I don't love KFH either.
We are renting out a house privately and KFH contacted me to say they had some families looking for property to rent and could they take some prospects in.
I said no and then had one of said families contact me directly to view the house. The family said that KFH had proactively contacted them to say they had a house to show (ours), despite us never agreeing to this. One of the agents at KFH also told me that my husband had agreed with the manager that they could take clients in when he had done no such thing.
I was this close to complaining to ARLA.

[actuallyadad]

All estate agents are massively annoying and incredibly unprofessional in the context of the value they deal with. It's not like you need a degree or a qualification to be an estate agent, it's like being a used car sales person. So sadly you have to expect then to be a bit rubbish.

I have had bad experiences with Douglas & Gordon and John Thorogood in Northcote road and would never use either again... not surprised to hear KFH are rubbish too!

[Genie]

Their explanation for insisting on my information was that they want to send me listings of other properties, so they don't want to 'waste my time' sending me things I won't like. I explained that I don't want to be sent any other listings, so that's not an issue.

I've viewed several other properties, and was asked for these details by the other agents as well, but when I politely declined, they were fine with it and showed me the properties anyway. KFH are the only ones who refused flat out to give me a viewing.