Least wanky estate agents in Cambridge

Any, ahem, recommendations? I realise it's a tall order.

Russels

I do wonder if they've now been superseded in their wankiness and whether *that* thread was a factor in them pulling their socks up.

Redmayne, Arnold & Harris are nice.

Thanks Sam. They certainly seemed nice when I got my mortgage through their adviser way back when, but I've noticed the properties they let out are horrifically over-priced, which makes me think they're not so nice.

Nice a curious term to describe those that profit from homelessness

I haven't had any dealings with their lettings arm. Just the toxic waste and baby-murdering divisions, they were efficient and smiley.

even Estate Agents gotta make a killing.. er, I mean living

Did you sell through RAH, Sam? I notice their fees of 95% are more than I've been quoted elsewhere.

We bought and sold through them. They definitely weren't the cheapest, but I think were roughly comparable with the other ones that didn't seem like shysters.

Aha, interesting, thanks. Just out of interest, who did you think were shysters?

We've bought and sold a house with Bush and bought the next with Tucker Gardner and my mother in law bought through Haart so we've experienced a few (and viewed houses with others) but I was definitely most taken (admittedly as a buyer, so not sure about rates, etc.) by TG.

The main reason was that TG treated buyers the best out of all the people we saw houses with, giving each buyer their own time slot. Seems a small thing, but Bush and others herd large groups in at once to heighten the fear or 'shit, someone's going to buy this - there's so much interest' and drives up prices.

Buyers are already hysterical enough without needing to browse a terraced house with 8 other adults already in there so I think TG get it right in that respect. I also can't fault the service as we went through the legal stages with their (Histon branch) people staying in constant contact and helping nudge the other side when solicitors were being slow/awaiting info.

Selling rates are an interesting one at the moment as you can really haggle them down. Most houses in Cambridge basically sell themselves so the estate agent really has to be fighting your corner to command a big rate. We paid 2% and had a deal in place that if they achieved a higher sale than a certain (fairly high) amount over the asking price, we'd pay them a higher commission on everything above that mark. In essence, it meant they had to work harder and if we had to pay more, we'd be very happy to do so.

I don't know about shysters, exactly, but I disliked the bloke from Tylers a lot, and Bush undervalued the house by quite a way, which didn't inspire confidence.

We didn't bother with the well-known agency that rhymes with 'fart'. A friend of ours was buying through them, and said that in order to speed up the signing of a few documents, the agent fabricated a story that someone was in intensive care and about to die.