Are State Agents that Lazy here in Netherlands?

Member since 22 January 2019

andycorleoeneMember22 January 2019 10:26:49

Hi, I decided is time to purchase a property here in Netherlands. After Contacting some agents via Funda and selecting Evening (After 5:30pm) or Weekends to see the properities.

I sent about 6 request. After a week only 3 of them had responded but only to tell me that they are not able to show the properties during those times.

After Buying and Selling 4 Houses in the US and UK this sounded like a Joke with the first email but after the second I started to realized this seem like the rule.

Are the fees that low that they don't really bother about potential buyers? or I just had bad luck?

Cheers

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Danlap Member

Member since 11 December 2017

DanlapMember22 January 2019 12:42:35

Hi,

Customer service (in general) in Netherlands sometimes indeed can be quite challenging. Especially when perceived by people who came from different culture or countries. The rule of thumb is that most people (including realtor) will work only up to 40 hours per work and during normal business hours (7 to 4; 8 to 5 or 9 to 6, etc.- unless working in shifts).Having more hours or in this case help you seeing properties after office hour, will most likely have minimum impact on their monthly income. This might not be the case if the realtor work individually for their own company as they are responsible for their own income. I've met 2 realtor that willing to visit me after 6.30 PM.

Same rules applied for doctor (unless emergency), grocery / fashion store, mechanic and even online customer service for most mobile or internet services.
Having said that, it is very common for employer to allow employee(s) to have some personal errand during office hour as long as communicated in advance. This is the way usually people deal with this matter.

I guess it is standardized based on the assumption that equal rights for proper dinner time, playing with their kids or others are applied for everybody regardless their work.

I would not say fee is that low, last year alone in general 2.5-3.5% out of agreed purchased price is for the realtor.

Good luck, I do partially agree that customer service or particular business hours should be reformed to meet (potential) customer demand.

Kind regards,
MR