23rd Aug 2023 (1 year ago)
Use with caution. No doubt a successful agency with fantastic property on their books, but treated like pawns with a £1m+ budget.
King West Market Harborough did not work with transparency during a set of viewings on a property they were selling. On the 2nd viewing, they did not show up. We walked around the property on our own, having agreed to meet them and the vendor with our parents present. A wasted 1hr journey.
Further, they did not fully disclose the state-of-play with the level of interest in the property. Having withheld information that another party who were proceed-able were tabling an offer having been interested since 4 weeks prior to our own interest. The house was also removed from Rightmove prior to the 2nd viewing where no-one showed.
When voicing my concern and raising red flags that 1) The house wasn't on rightmove, 2) No one showed on 2nd viewing 3) I learned there was a 4th and proceed-able party, the agent played down my concerns, was very defensive and said he expected we could sell our house as late as September and would be very much in with a shot. This was because the 4th party were 'faffing' as he put it.
2 days later, 4th party agrees to table an offer. Probably because King West hurried them along due to our own interest (this is my assumption, however). We get how this works, it's sales, sometimes an interested party needs a nudge and the fear of missing out. However, we feel that King West has strung us along and in turn we have played a catalyst to someone else's benefit. Good on them and good on King West for earning their commission, but this could have been orchestrated with empathy, open communication and transparency.
On learning that we had missed out, we were disappointed that there was zero reaction by King West to;
1) Build a plan to find us a similar property
2) To learn what our motivators for moving are
Let alone...
3) Find out why the vendor and an agent did not show
4) Find out why no one told us about the 4th party until the last minute!!
Instead, I was told I'd get a call when the offer had been accepted. 7 days pass and so I decide to call. Sure enough the offer was accepted days ago and no one called to let us know. Surprise!
It's entirely disappointing that King West knew that we only decided to market our own property off the back of them telling us that all other interested parties had their own houses to sell and that we were in a good and equal position. The house in question was ideal due to the location being in very close proximity to parents and King West knew this. It was a diamond on the market that was the only property we were willing to market our own house for.
In conclusion, this is really poor and inconsistent communication from King West. It has resulted in our time being wasted (including bringing our 18mth old baby on viewings) and our intentions to sell our own property completely in vein and guided on misinformation from King West.
We have a seven figure budget and I am appalled that there have been no proactive moves from King West to help us find something similar. When talking to other agents in the same area, they are diligent in understanding our criteria.
If King West would like to call me, they have my number.... Read more