This is according to new research by Obligo, a next-generation provider of financial services to estate agents.
Just over half (54%) of the 300 estate agency firms surveyed by Obligo said the service they received was average while only 15% said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their existing mortgage arrangements.
As to how they work with brokers, the vast majority of agents (87%) said they have informal arrangements with local firms, while 7% have a self-employed broker in-house and 3% employ a mortgage broker on a full time basis.
Absenteeism seems a particular problem for agents: eight out of 10 (81%) of those surveyed said that the brokers they relied on only visited their office once or twice a week, with just 10% saying their broker visited them four or more times a week.
And which part of the service provided by their fs providers are agents most dissatisfied with? The biggest issue by a distance, with 71% of the vote, was being kept up-to-speed on case progress.
Next was speed of service (15%) followed by commissions (8%) and conversion rate (6%).
Chris Gardner, Director at Obligo, commented: “There is clearly a lot of dissatisfaction among agents with their fs partners. Much of the frustration stems from the lack of contact agents have with their brokers - they feel that they are rarely there when they need them to be. The other major gripe is the poor level of information they receive on case progress. In the current market, knowing how a deal is progressing is more important than ever but the vast majority of brokers, quite clearly, are failing to keep their introducers up-to-date.”
