Changing Places - Real estate

mattwalker · Apr 27, 2007 4:58 pm

I posted this story in another thread and though I would also post it here so it didn't get lost!

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I had an interesting run in with "changing places" a few months back....

These guys are still an agency but not a traditional agent as such.

I rang in regards to a property that I was interested in going through and was greeted by a courteous lady who was in a hurry. It was a wednesday afternoon and she was busy. She asked to call me back later that day.

She didn't call me back until Thursday afternoon after I called to jog her memory.

We organised to go through the property on Saturday morning at 10:00. I arrived at 9:50 and at 10:20 I called the agent and she said she was just around the corner. 10 minutes later she called back to say she was still in a suburb that was 25 minutes away and that she had told a mistruth (her words).

She asked if we could wait for her to arrive and after discussing with my wife we agreed.

The agent arrived at 11:20 and she was rather aggressive considering she had wasted 1 and half hours of our time.

We went to the front door with her telling us that the owners were on holidays and she had had a problem with the keys not working here on other occassions.

Guess what! The keys didn't work. The agent proceeded to show us through the house from the windows.....

In disbelief I asked if we could organise to come through the house at a later date preferably without her.. (I wasn't rude, I just made it clear tha we liked the house but not the service.)

1 week later (the earliest we could get through) I was greeted at 10:10 (another 10:00 appointment) by a male agent who was extremely apologetic about what had happened with his long time friend (female agent) he couldn't believe what had happened himself and purported to be shocked.

I asked him for a business card and he said that he could not give us one as he really didn't work for this agency. He was retired and was simply doing this as a "favour" for his friend....

We looked through the house and decided that even if it was the right one, it probably wasn't, based solely on the experience we had with the company to this point.

My wife rang the owner of the franchise in question and we never received a phone call back.

We were dissapointed and did not look at anymore homes listed with them.

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Matt

Michelle · May 02, 2007 10:34 pm

What the hell is going on here that is appalling!

Matt….that would put you off wanting to look ever again.

Want to hear mine for the day…. I’m going to repost it just for fun!!

I have made 2 appointments now with a washing machine repair business in Nowra.
Both times I have been stood up… no phone call no nothing. First time I had to ring them to see what was going on…. I then made another appointment. Gave them the benefit of the doubt, and yes…. Stood up again today.

I have now invoiced them for MY TIME and am sending a letter as well.
Now just between you me and 2000 other people looking at the forum, it would not surprise me if they pay the invoice. Which I am only sending to get their attention!!! But if they pay it, I will really be questioning where their heads are at. This goes on all the time in this town, everyone here has had enough.

I feel sorry for the people who are treated in such a way and can’t stand up for their rights. Imagine poor old nana & grandad being treated the same as you and I have been treated.

My heart would break for them!!!!

What is going on??? :evil:

Mandy · May 03, 2007 10:21 pm

Hi Michelle. Your comments are of no surprise to me and I would strongly say that I doubt it would be a surprise to the other 2,000 reading this. It's horrifying in the least to say that this sort of behaviour does happen to granny & grandpa also and I think it's unacceptable. I would not ever give a person a second chance in a situtation like that either. I commend you sending them a bill for your time and think more people should seriously consider doing the same and demand payment. Good luck with and I hope the fools do pay your invoice because as you say you would have to wonder where their heads are at. I think they already answered that before you sent them your invoice.

Cheers Mandy

yvette72 · Aug 04, 2007 12:33 pm

Yes I know what you mean I live in south east qld and most of agents here are very lazy and cannot be bother to get of there bums and show you anything or even ring you back. I rang one agent at 5.05pm and was told to very rudley to ring back in business time.Yes they must be licensed to show you the home.I donot know how they make a living here you are expecent to chase them if you want to buy something even if you are looking for a rental.I had a problem only last week we are renting while our house is beening build we have to get out of the current rental as the owner is selling it we put in a application to rent a place even hand delivery it to the property manager 4 weeks later I rang them I was told they never receviced our application and that the home had now been put the market to sell I started to ask who the principal was so I could complain and she hang up on me >so rang the application and told him after all those applications have some very privacy information including licence numbers etc he took my number but never rang back. very bad with people stealing id

cuspub · Jan 15, 2017 12:04 pm

Read the following 100% factual account, and make up your own mind.

We decided to go with Changing Places due to my wife having had some social contact with an agent working for the company. Well, you know what they say about “employing” your friends? Not a good idea it seems.

Nevertheless, we placed the sale in this person’s hands (Warren has subsequently left Changing Places), who arranged for the usual exorbitantly priced internet advertising to take place, arranged for photography and house measurements to be taken. Warren then wrote the text for the advertising and sent it to me to proof. My goodness me, it was so bad I asked if I could ‘clean’ it up. He had no problem with this as he acknowledged that English was an issue for him.

Note that I am not a Real-estate Agent and have no expertise in writing advertising scripts, so I simply cleaned up his diatribe – which in all honesty was so poorly written the gibberish made no sense.

Once re-written, I emailed it to Warren expecting him to make some changes to ensure the best marketing approach. Not so. He retained it verbatim! Sadly, not being an agent and not understanding the market like an agent theoretically would, I went with the flow. Problem was, my property was (for the area) quite large, and realistically the true market is the developer.

However the property was portrayed as a home for sale, not land that had subdivision plans in place and a home that should probably be demolished to allow the building of several townhouses.

Timing wise; the market was so hot, that typically when we attended other Open Houses, it was standing room only. Ours; we had a total of 4 Open Houses and a total of 4 parties over the month! That was enough for me to realise our property had been compromised.

I decided to pull out and ask that the proposed Auction be stopped. It all worked in the end - after having to threaten management with how their agent couldn’t even put a marketing program together.

Bottom line; those 4 weeks were harrowing and the response from Changing Places – pathetic.
We moved on without selling the property in one of the hottest markets in Melbourne.
Almost a year later we decided to put the house back on the market – only doing an off-market campaign. The real estate agents in question asked if I could procure some images to assist them in the no-cost off-market sales process.

Having paid Changing Places more than $2500 for inept advertising and photography, I felt it logical that I contact them for my photos. I phoned and the call was answered by Vanessa and I have to say, butter wouldn’t have melted in her mouth. “I’m off with the children for a couple of days, so please send through your details and I will contact you as soon as I return”. This was at 9.15am on a Monday.

Friday morning around 10.30 I called Vanessa and said “We spoke the other day about my photographs, and I was wondering how you are going with that?” Her response; “I told you I wouldn’t be back until Friday afternoon, so leave it and I will get Back to you.” Seriously, you could have cut the air with a knife!

So be it. But no call, no email, nothing. I called again a few days later and after a few rings the phone went to message bank… time and time again over the next few days. Vanessa had obviously decided that the photos I paid for were to be used by me to sell a house that they couldn’t. So therefore I couldn’t have my photos.

Would I recommend Changing Places? I think you get the drift.

qebtel · Feb 07, 2017 2:04 pm

[quote defaultattr=""]Would I recommend Changing Places? I think you get the drift.[/quote]
Well at least they are consistent. as it seems nothing has changed in 10 years! lol