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Estate agents....

ECLM
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When I price jobs for estate agents I always have a minimum price. Then half day/ full day prices depending on what sort of job it is. They are quite good at saying what they want doing and then adding little bits on that you feel obliged to not charge for once you’ve quoted.

 
Clarkus84 said:
Just wondering if anyone gets much work through estate agents and how you's would go about charging??day rate??hourly rate??I've had a local estate agent leave me a message about possible work.never had to deal with one before so any advice appreciated lads....

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We do work for several estate agents they now recomend us to the customer selling there house suggesting that they call us to have the plastics ,windows, or whole house softwashed , we pick up loads of work like this , we just price up the job as you would any other  

 
Clarkus84 said:
Just wondering if anyone gets much work through estate agents and how you's would go about charging??day rate??hourly rate??I've had a local estate agent leave me a message about possible work.never had to deal with one before so any advice appreciated lads....

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You should take the work on and charge them an arrangement fee, a credit check fee, a customer application fee and a go cardless fee.  And don't forget to find some commission to include somewhere!  Nah just kidding, it's just when I hear the word estate agent I run a mile but  that's only because they're normally trying to rip me off or lie to me.  I have zero experience in dealing with them in regards to window cleaning so can't help.  Hope it works  out for you though.

 
I think that estate agents are wasters. They will drop you instant when a dude calls in and offers 1 euro less. I know few lads that have invested big money in new tools and vans to undertake huge maintenance projects from estate agents only to do business for few months before their contact was sacked or promoted and they were left in a hole.

I pre-charge all estate agents and i try to avoid them

 
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Sofa Cleaning Dublin said:
I think that estate agents are wasters. They will drop you instant when a dude calls in and offers 1 euro less. I know few lads that have invested big money in new tools and vans to undertake huge maintenance projects from estate agents only to do business for few months before their contact was sacked or promoted and they were left in a hole.

I pre-charge all estate agents and i try to avoid them
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Really?..  we have a very good working relationship with several estate agents and have done work for them and there clients for 18 years + they put a lot of work our way .

 
I have to agree to be honest ive had a hard time with estate agents. A good thing to do is check client feedback in their reviews. I’m not sure what its like in other areas but round here a lot of the big name estate agents have some truly awful feedback. Not talking about one or two complaints either its probably 1/3 of people have had serious problems with them. If thats how they treat their customers you can only imagine how they treat contractors who work for them. Worked for 2 or 3 in the early days and threw the towel in a long time ago 

 
Estate agents are like retail and i would say are struggling to compete with the internet. Some charge over 1% commission but folk are not daft anymore when selling houses. You can either sell on the net or go with a £600 fixed fee which my mate done. He sold his house and saved himself 2 grand into the bargain. This means estate agents are losing a lot of money and are in contracting mode. It may be good for us because they need to cut costs. I would much prefer to get involve with a factor but they usually leave window cleaning to the residents which i got told today. So it meant i picked up a clean in a block of flats and maybe the other 5 if i make a good job.

 
Incheck said:
I have to agree to be honest ive had a hard time with estate agents. A good thing to do is check client feedback in their reviews. I’m not sure what its like in other areas but round here a lot of the big name estate agents have some truly awful feedback. Not talking about one or two complaints either its probably 1/3 of people have had serious problems with them. If thats how they treat their customers you can only imagine how they treat contractors who work for them. Worked for 2 or 3 in the early days and threw the towel in a long time ago 
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Most of the ones we do work for are privately owned not the big national ones , we get loads of work from them , they evan hand out our buisness cards suggesting to ones wanting to sell there house to get us to vac the gutters, clean the UPVC or softwash the walls or pressure wash the drive patios etc , I have found when ones are selling a house they are prepared to spend afar bit of money to make it appealing to potential Byers , a couple of years ago a mid terraced house was up for sale and they couldn’t sell it , was on the market fir months , the estate agent suggested they get us to softwash  it and within a week the place sold , I don’t know if this is just a coincidence but it has happened several times once we have cleaned up a place ,as the potential buyer thinks that’s one less job they have to sort out if they buy the place 

 
Ive only been going a short while but have hada cpl of jobs like these, a local agent rang me and said they needed a price for an end of tenancy clean, i quoted £45 in n out, a week later i got a call from the actual tenant and quoted them the same, they were shockedas estate/letting agent quoted them £95+vat for my £45 clean.

I got the job from tennant and £10 tip.

2nd job i got was from a holiday let agent for a 4bed challett, quoted £35 including veluxs from inside, got the job and am waiting on more work from them.

 
I used to work for a national estate agent, but I think they were ripping off landlords, as I have had a few landlords sack off their maintenance and come direct to me to get the work done. Ive also had tenants where I have carried out work on their properties with this agent, ask me when I am due to come back and do it again i.e gutters, but I think this particular national is struggling and they are not looking after maintenance on the properties they rent out now. They have closed a number of branches in the area now and just have one in Durham City.

 
THL4KEL said:
I used to work for a national estate agent, but I think they were ripping off landlords, as I have had a few landlords sack off their maintenance and come direct to me to get the work done. Ive also had tenants where I have carried out work on their properties with this agent, ask me when I am due to come back and do it again i.e gutters, but I think this particular national is struggling and they are not looking after maintenance on the properties they rent out now. They have closed a number of branches in the area now and just have one in Durham City.
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Yes I know the one ?, they didn't even contact me to let me know they had closed it despite cleaning the shop windows for around a year, I think one of my neighbours told me and I think they are the biggest in the UK, or one of them 

 
I think I might need to clarify what I have said , the estate agents we deal with recommend us to there clients we then deal with the client and the client paid us not the estate agents , they don’t get any money from what we do , 

 
Not all estate agents are bad but there is no friendship. In Dublin, there are 3-4 huge international e estate agents. Getting paid from them is a nightmare. Job done. Invoice sent. 2 months later still waiting.

Another issue with estate agents is the risk of getting stuck between an the tenant & the landlord. In few cases i was asked by the estate agent to give a bad report on the condition of the property so the landlord could keep the rent deposit. 

Then again, i dealt with few amazing estate agents that paid me twice for the same job! (haha)

But i think that any new company should not build up a business plan with work guaranteed from estate agents. They should be kept as a part of the business, not more than 20%

 
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Funny this topic came up, just been approached by a lettings agent who deals with student digs. They sending me a list of properties tonight and ill submit my quote friday. See how it goes

 

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