.... random rants and rambles. no agenda. yet.

It occurred to me recently that I have never heard anyone say nice things about an estate agent. T, who has just sold her house, sent me an explody email the other week saying things about her estate agent that I really can't repeat, and other mates who sold their house last year were so suspicious of their estate agent that they went and spied on them (long story!).

I'm not going to spy on ours, but I am sure they could be doing more to sell our house. C said they can't MAKE people buy it, which is true, but they said they would sell it quickly and they haven't done. Depends how you define 'quickly', I suppose. For me, 'quickly' means 'in about 3 days time', but for them it seems to mean 'anything within a year will be a bonus'. I am not being very fair, probably, but I am also not known for my patience! HURRY UP AND SELL OUR HOUSE ALREADY!

So anyway, I was thinking that estate agents are probably up there with traffic wardens as some of the Least Liked Workers in the UK, and guess what? I was right! According to a 2002 poll, estate agents were even less popular than MPs! That's a bit harsh, I feel... they aren't THAT bad. Things have probably changed since then anyway because we've had more war crimes and other bad things since 2002.

I digress. What exactly is it about estate agents that annoy us so much? Is it because they wear pink ties and call us 'guys' and bounce around gleefully? Even Linda, my favourite Hebden Bridge estate agent, tried to make me look at information on a house that was WAY out of our budget when I popped in during a brief visit today. I refused to take the information, but she did make me take information on two other houses that don't match our criteria. This is the same woman who said "ooh, I wouldn't live there" about another house, and I pointed out that she was meant to be selling things to me, not putting me off. No wonder people get suspicious and spy on their estate agents(!)

And then there was the one who wrote our names and address on the back of an envelope and said he would get in touch with us. He never did, of course. They never do! Why?! Don't say you'll do something if you aren't going to do it..!

Ah, poor estate agents. They aren't all bad. I guess it's probably quite stressful having to sell about 700 houses at the same time, and having to remember which ones have gardens, and which ones have converted lofts, or sheds outside, or electric ovens. That must cause much brain fullness!

And I am hoping that fate will do something fab right now because a Possibly Fateful Thing happened yesterday, when C and I were sitting in our garden with the lovely G, who was visiting. The doorbell rang, and C went to answer it. G asked me why we didn't have a flashing doorbell - so I explained that there isn't much point because no-one ever rings it anyway. G found this very funny (!) and said "Ooh, you never know, it might be someone wanting to look round your house!" ... "Yeah, maybe," I replied, not really believing it.

But it WAS, and she seemed very keen, so please do touch lots of wood and hope for us (though praying isn't necessary - thanks all the same). I just think it would be so ironic and fitting if she DOES want to buy our house, because we found The House in HB by chance, and she found ours by chance too. Also it would give the world another reason to doubt poor estate agents and bump them up on unpopular polls, etc.

And, even if the random woman does like our house and wants to buy it with no help from our estate agent - except for the FOR SALE sign, which we could have made ourselves pretty easily with a bit of wood - we still have to pay them rather a lot of money indeed.

Maybe that is why?