The good news: after this upset we finally found our lovely summer flat.

Altogether brighter, fresher, closer to work and with that all important sitting out area for the summer.

So how did we find it? Well, we saw it on Gumtree.

For the unenlightened, Gumtree is just a place to buy, sell, giveaway or swap things. You can put up pictures, info, contacts details – in short, virtually everything you need to know to decide whether or not you want to view a house.

We saw the pics. We liked it. We arranged a viewing. We liked it. We agreed the deal. It’s that simple.

All done without the use of a lettings agency.

Our lettings agency experiences weren’t so positive. Pattisons made an appointment they didn’t keep. Then they rang me a whole two weeks later to see if I wanted to see another property. Understandably we said no and explained why. They didn’t apologise.

They did, however, ring up again the next day to ask: do you want to see another property? Lettings agents, it seems, have thick skins.

I trawled one by one, the lettings agent paradise of Acorn Road in Jesmond. Every last one of them, without fail, told me just to check their websites. I did they were all, without exception, wildly out of date and lacking the most basic of info.

Acorn Properties were the most friendly but their initially businesslike manner was ruined by not getting back to me on two occasions when I tried to set up viewings.

When I checked out the Adderstones Group’s website I was amazed to find that the details it provided included only a downloadable pdf of properties available – no pics, no details. Try working through that.

On other occasions agents couldn’t even find details when we rang up asking about properties when we saw them either on the web or marked by To Let boards. Other agents didn’t even have websites. Can you imagine?

So what do we expect of Lettings Agents? Well we want the obvious. We want to be met at properties when we make appointments. We want agents to keep us in mind when new properties become available that meet our requirements. We want them to return our calls and our emails (I genuinely don’t think many letting agency employees even understand email). We want them to, unlike Bowsons Lettings, keep their word and behave with some level of ethics and decency.

When we say we are interested in properties in East Newcastle we don’t expect reams of badly photocopied brochures through our letterboxes detailing houses in Gateshead.

But…

You could also argue that agents don’t actually have to do any of this because, although they haven’t spotted it, their world has already changed

You see, really we don’t need them at all. We just need a website that functions and some way of contacting the owner without the agent slowing things down.

I want to see pics on the site. Lots of them. I want to be able to enlarge them. I want to be able to send questions. I’d like to see a diary where I can place viewing bookings. I want each property to have its own url so I can forward them individually to my partner for her consideration.

Comments from past viewers might be cool too. If I was a landlord and none of the viewers took the property I’d be interested to know why.

Most of all I want it to be up to date. I don’t want to waste my time checking up on properties that have already gone or may not even reach the market. None of this is hard. Newspapers change their entire websites overnight – we’re only asking agents to weed out those properties already spoken for.

Gumtree already provides much of this and it was significant that my house hunting only became successful once we ditched the agents.

Using an agent would have cost me in the region of £400 more in fees. By not using one I have been able to use the saved cash (almost £70 a month over a six month contract) to find an altogether nicer property. By searching myself and dealing directly with the owner I have also had much better service than what the agents charge so much for.

In truth, the estate agency industry will die and its employees don’t even appear to know it. When they could be promoting the human side of what they can offer, as opposed to the more efficient high tech option, they’re not even keeping up with basic business courtesies. They’ve either already given up or have just been spoiled by housing booms gone by.

The very next time I do any of this as seller/buyer or landlord/tenant I won’t be using agents. They simply aren’t needed any more. Everything is better and easier if I do it myself.

Will anyone miss them when they’re gone?

* Since being treated badly by Bowson Lettings over 20 people have found their way to this website having searched for the agency. No doubt they read what I wrote and I am sure the vast majority decided to go with a more reputable agent. Good.

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