1 Star Review
Dec 13,2018
By:
'Martin'
Dec 13,2018
Branch: Glasgow, Centrum House 38 Queen Street:
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: G13
Branch: Glasgow, Centrum House 38 Queen Street:
Sales (Prospective customer)
Postcode: G13
15
people found
this helpful
First of all it, it is worth pointing out some of Scottish House Move's practices, which I experienced during my time with them.
1. They will not follow up with viewers to get feedback. So if your house isn't selling you will have no feedback as to the reason. (They rely on you to follow up with viewers, but I'm not sure viewers will be as candid with the seller as they would with an agent.)
2. They do not log the calls from potential viewers, but simply direct them to you.
3. They do not provide a floorplan.
4. There is an additional fee for photographs.
5. Should you wish to take your house off the websites for any period (in my case to address work highlighted as needed done by the home report) they will charge you the *full £595* to put it back on. That is the entire fee! I checked 6 other estate agents at random. *No other agency charged any fee for this*. (A couple even explained how easy it was to do).
6. They claim to be the cheapest on the market. They are not.
7. Any concerns I had were dealt with the frontline staff. Latterly I could not get access to the decision-making director, with Lewis acting as the go-between.
When I first spoke to SHM, I talked a few times with Colin Bain, the director, who was extremely approachable to address any concerns, and pitch his case. Also at that time, SHM would follow up viewers' visits with a phone call to provide feedback. Colin left the company in the summer after 5 years with them and the follow-up calls also stopped in the summer because they became 'too busy'.
It is also worth noting that last year there were 86 reviews and the year before 79. This year only 15, with 12 of those in the first 5 months. Since the summer there have been 3 reviews. The dramatic drop in reviews coincides with Colin Bain leaving the company. I think Joyce has also left and she and Colin generated the vast majority of the reviews.
I dealt with Logan and Lewis. They were pleasingly very quick to respond to emails and phone calls (which, while being an excellent service, did make me wonder if they were really 'too busy'). However, when engaging with either, my experience was at times listening to 'computer says no'. I also found them slow to offer up information on their support, and I had to know which specific question to ask, an obvious example being the change in follow up calls. With Logan I found I had to check his work, as he didn't. E.g. I provided a floorplan and submitted it to him to go on the website. When I checked, I found it to be in the wrong section. After pointing this out to get corrected, I checked again and found in the right place but illegible. A further mail was required to get it done correctly. This was not an isolated incident.
The icing on the cake came when Lewis *told me* that I had received a satisfactory service, and had no reason to complain - this after telling me that I would have to pay the full £595 to remove and re-list.
SHM may work fine, if there are no problems. I believe, however, you will undoubtedly be weaker without viewer feedback. While the price is reflective of a bare service, this lack of viewer feedback and the full charge to re-list were deal breakers for me. So much so, I left SHM with the house unsold, and now have to pay another fee to start again with another agency.
(The house is a semi-detached in Jordanhill, so really should not be difficult to sell).
However, I do believe you can get much better value elsewhere for similar price.
Comment on agent fees
Fees are low but not the lowest in the market, despite their claims to the contrary.
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