“At the start if 2013 we decided to sell our flat ......”
2 Star Review
Aug 23,2013
By:
'Gavin'
Aug 23,2013
Branch: Brighton, 110 St Georges Road, Kemp Town
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: BN2
Branch: Brighton, 110 St Georges Road, Kemp Town
Sales (as a Vendor)
Postcode: BN2
10
people found
this helpful
At the start if 2013 we decided to sell our flat with Brand Vaughan as they came across as the most current and up to date agent, Jason Brand was confident he could get a good price for the flat and recommended we list at £175,000 even though my wife was pregnant at the time and he was aware we wanted a quick sale. He was confident he would sell the property within 6 weeks.
We were happy with the service in the beginning and we were getting plenty of viewings. However, there was no firm interest and Mr. Brand recommended we drop the price to £170,00 which we did. We then had the first of three incidents which left us very disappointed with the service received.
There was no consistency in how they arranged viewings, they would either call, text or email to advise me of a viewing and I would reply with confirmation. I received an email from them which due to the large amount of emails I was receiving I missed and therefore did not confirm that we were happy for a viewing to go ahead. The viewing went ahead without my confirmation and the agent and potential buyer turned up one morning whilst my wife was still in bed. On its own, this would not be too much of a big deal, a communications error we could overlook and I just asked them to ensure we confirmed the viewings in future.
Shortly after, upon the advice of Mr. Brand we dropped the price again to £165,000 something we probably should have done from the word go as we were never going to get £175,000 for it but being generally inexperienced in selling a property we went with the agents advice. Anyway, we went away for a bank holiday weekend and upon our return found our front door to be ajar. I called the Brand Vaughan to confirm whether they had done the viewings that were booked in and they confirmed that they had. When I informed them that the front door had been left open the agents reply was something along the lines of ¢â‚¬Å“phew, I didn't do the viewings so I'm off the hook¢â‚¬Â¦¢â‚¬Â. He then advised that he would ¢â‚¬Å“look into it¢â‚¬Â for me and I heard nothing and did not have the time to chase.
A few weeks later, once we had accepted an offer on the property, we returned home to find that a few things had been moved. I called Brand Vaughan to ask if they had been in and they advised that they had shown our buyers around so they could measure up! We had been in and out of the hospital all week with pregnancy related problems and the place was a state. Non-surprisingly my wife was horrified and insisted that they tell the buyers the circumstances. We had had no call, text or email advising us of the viewing and had we known then there is no way we would have left the flat in such a state. We asked for our keys back shortly after¢â‚¬Â¦
I called Jason Brand to advise of what had happened and his response was ¢â‚¬Å“I can't believe you weren't told¢â‚¬Â¦ I'll look into it¢â‚¬Â¦¢â‚¬Â. I heard nothing back from him so sent an email detailing the three incidents above and asking for his feedback. Again, I heard nothing back from him and did not have the time or energy to chase for an apology.
All in all, there's lots of flash and bravado with Brand Vaughan but once you get past that they are the same, generic, uncaring, useless estate agents who offer zero level of customer service and just want their cut of the sale. How they can't have a clear paper trail for arranging and organising viewings is beyond me and the fact that the boss of the company can receive an email and a call from a customer and completely ignore it is shocking.
10
people found
this helpful
Was this helpful?
Yes
Brand Vaughan listed the property at the price suggested by the client and worked hard to achieve the best result, the flat was sold in good time to an excellent buyer and the sale completed in the timescales required by all parties.
When the property was listed the was a noticeable damp patch in the front bay which the owner did not want to repair. As I knew this would be an issue for any buyer and surveyor I arranged a quote to fix the damp from a local tradesman before we went to market so potential buyers knew the works required were not too major. Many agents would not have considered this st the outset and this certainly assisted the sale.
There was an incident of a viewing not being booked in correctly which was discussed in the office and systems improved and we apologised to the client.
This client obviously has an issue with agents in general and our experience with him we could equally post a negative review on his poor work but choose not to.
Jason Brand
Director
Brand Vaughan
2014 President of the Brighton & Hove estate agents association