Stags Arvostelua 

I submitted a review yesterday about Stags, which is now published. I wish I had searched Trustpilot before I made contact with them. Out of the 42 reviews, mine included, 47% were 1 Star, which you can accept are genuine. However, when I read those that gave 5 Stars, I became very dubious: One from the Netherlands, one from the USA, one from New Zealand from someone who predominantly comments on online gaming casinos! There was one who praised Luke from Stags at Totnes (see the review given about Luke by Tom!! The wording on many of the others doesn't ring true either, but who am I to say they are staged? Draw your own conclusions!!

I liked that all the people here are very friendly and professional.

On our initial visit to Stags Totnes we were warmly welcomed and all staff were friendly. We have subsequently dealt with the Stags Totnes office over the past few months, both in person, but largely by phone and online due tour remote location from the office and they were very helpful and professional. We dealt initially with Imogen but sometimes in her absence, Luke dealt with our enquiries and was fully up to speed with our house purchase. Equally important is the friendly, professional way the telephone is answered and swiftly put through to the correct person or someone who can handle the query. Well done to all.

In the last 18 months we have had three run ins with stags as buyers.

-The viewing on the first house went well enough, but stags used a third party to conduct the viewing and the lady didn't know anything about the property other than how it was decorated (she was very nice though!). They then withheld information about some important details that would have seriously devalued the house and potentially made it unmortgagable- it's not like these things won't crop up during searches and surveys, so why hide it?

-On the second house, we booked a viewing 2 weeks in advance (the only time stags could do apparently). Stags then called the day before and told us that someone had made an offer and if we still wanted to view we had to put in a higher offer. We didn't get the viewing and we later found out from a local that there never was an offer at that time. It sold a few weeks later and fell through again before finally selling to a cash buyer (the only people stags let view houses!)

- The third incident was trying to arrange a viewing on what looked to be a perfect house. As soon as it hit right move, I asked to view with the intention of making an offer at the asking price. No one got back to me. Put in another request, no reply. We suspect that it is because we haven't exchanged contracts on our current house, but haven't had any confirmation from stags either way.

We have spoken to others and have found that Stags commonly recommend that people sell their house and just rent so they can be immediately proceedable- terrible financial advice and still acting as though we are mid-pandemic.

We now actively avoid any house listed with them, no matter how perfect it is as we don't want to deal with them.

They should stick to auctioning off swathes of farmland for development at Strawberry Fields.

Harriet at Stags in Bridport has given us the best possible advice and support throughout the house sale and her assistant Amelia has also been extremely helpful.I highly recommend Stags in Bridport.

Luke from Stags Totnes came to visit my property a week ago ( Wed 26th March ) to carry out a valuation. I made an error with the time of the appointment however it made no difference to the appraisal as I was at home anyway. I was not informed at any point that the response would take so long.

After waiting for a response until Monday 31st I followed up with 3 emails and 3 phone calls across 3 separate days in order to try and get a response. I received nothing until over a week later ( Wed 2nd April ) when I received the below email.

Make your own conclusions:

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‘Dear Tom,

Thank you for your emails and calls, and I apologise for the delay in coming back to you. I had informed you that I would aim to respond early this week, having been away towards the end of last week.

That said, I understand from my colleague that you have since confirmed you will not be proceeding with Stags. In light of that, I will not be providing any further advice or service.

As I am sure you can appreciate, it takes considerable time, effort, and cost to carry out a valuation, undertake the necessary research, and follow up with a detailed report. I also felt, candidly, that our initial meeting lacked a degree of professionalism, given the appointment had been mis-timed and our conversation felt somewhat rushed as a result.

I appreciate this may not be the response you were expecting, but I hope you can understand my position. My focus now is on supporting clients who have committed to working with us.

Best regards
 
Luke’

I purchased a farm through staggs in 2018, Greg sleeman was excellent, very helpful making it a pleasant experience! I’ve now rented the farm through staggs, I can honestly say Alisha, Emma have been fantastic! Kept me updated throughout, found great tenants, exactly how a professional estate agents should be. I could recommend highly enough.

Thank you very much.
James - lane end farm

Worst estate agent! They're only interested in getting the money from the tenant and not if someone has a complaint about the tenant. Have had a nightmare since the new tenants have moved in, noisy at all times of night. Cooking very smelly foods at all hours, knowing there is an issue with ventilation. My personal belongings have now been ruined as the food smells have stuck dispite washing ect. Smoking in the property despite it being against the tenancy agreement. Stags have done the bare minimum to solve any of this. They have now stopped replying to my emails as they clearly don't want to bother with me or the issues now. If you are thinking about letting out your property don't use stags, they will essentially let the tenants ruin your property despite multiple complaints from multiple residents. Have had to get the council involved about the noise as stags don't want to know!

One of best estate agents in Totnes---Stags!! I used the same agent twice for selling my properties in the past. I also used their rental section as well. They are professional yet very approachable. Always friendly and good communications. Especially Luke and Imogen are excellent. I highly recommend the Stags, Totnes!!

You would be silly not to use such a great company !!!

Would not recommend. Cold and callous.

Stags of Launceston sold our property in cornwall which was not an easy sale. It was handled very professionally by the nicest team of people you could meet. They always went the extra mile. Take a bow Jordan!!! Thanks again.

We were tenants in a Stags managed property. We were ignored, disrespected and disappointed for the duration of our tenancy.

There has been a large turnover of staff in the Tiverton rentals office, during which there was a huge time of having no Lettings Manager at all due to them being unable to recruit - we were told this by a Stags Lettings Administrator! There has been a new Lettings Manager(LM) since March 24, who I am sorry to say is not up to scratch for a role titled Manager. You can clearly see after taking so long to recruit to this position, they have had to settle for someone unqualified for the role. He is cold, inconsiderate and unprofessional. The first time we met, he did not introduce himself he just walked into our home. For a people facing role, he has no social skills and absolutely no knowledge of the properties he is 'managing'. I would have thought once in a new role you'd swat up on the properties you manage?

After we'd given notice at the property, there were 3 viewings booked in. The first was booked for 10am. The prospective tenants arrived a few minutes early - fine in my book, but LM arrived 3 minutes late. In what business do you arrive late for a meeting? Especially when you are showing someone\'s home around to prospective clients. The house is max. 5 minute drive from the Stags office, so there really isn't a good excuse for his lateness. Upon being late, LM made no apology and ignored our presence. The clients had reasonable questions about the house, to which LM had no answer. They were easy questions like where is the parking space, is it gas boiler etc, which he should absolutely have known the answer to. To some of these questions, he made no attempt to answer saying "I don't know" and making no attempt to find out. To some, he asked us, the current tenants. It is incredibly unprofessional to not know the basics of the properties you manage.

There were 3 whole viewings, where you are given 15 minutes each. LM made a comment about how there were "loads" of viewings. By definition, 3 is not loads. He said to the prospective clients how much effort a viewing is and that it costs "£100 per viewing for the business" to carry out. I was shocked to hear someone talk this way to potential new clients. Sorry your job is too much effort for you!

LM also repeatedly accused us of damaging the property, that we absolutely hadn't. Accusing our dog of ripping flooring in the kitchen, which was ripped when we moved in. At our viewing when we were looking around, we were told the floor was going to be replaced before we moved in. This didn't happen and still hasn't happened. LM also accused us of putting holes in the wall of the Principle bedroom. These holes were from a cowboy job of putting a TV stand in the wall, that we were told we could remove. The holes were created by previous tenants and ignored until he came to accuse us.

Upon ending our tenancy at the property, Stags are attempting to charge us ridiculous costs for pathetic reasons. When we moved in, the house was filthy - which by the way they are fine with and not contesting! How can you settle for this lack of quality? They are arguing for more money as they have found some areas that are even worse for wear than when we moved on, things like curtain ties that no one ever touches! They have taken far too long to provide quotes for work they believe needs doing, and are attempting to charge silly prices for silly work. They rely on tenants having to prove you have not created damage and expect you to cave to whatever they say. It seems as though they try to find the most obscure things to be "wobbly" so they can charge you for it. We have waited a very long time for our deposit back, after being told we'd receive it one week after given keys back.

If you're thinking most of the other reviews look positive, why is this one so negative? Then check who the other reviews are from. Usually, those selling their house or renting out their houses. Stags are incredibly bias and aim to please the house owners, not the tenants! Even though us little people pay ridiculous rental costs, they couldn't care less about us so don't let them fool you into thinking they do.

It's incredibly difficult being a renter right now, but I would avoid Stags wherever possible. We are still fighting to get our deposit of £1000+ back, a month after vacating the property.

Pertains to office in DT6
Withheld key and mandatory information that would affect the price significantly, property described as detached if fact shared/ accesses and developer not disclosing impending works .

advertising no pets allowed in a house advert, even though this is breaking the law

Stags of Yeovil have been brilliant for us. Ashton met us for the property viewing and allowed us space to view it at our on pace and moments where my husband and I could privately discuss our thoughts as we went along and I was very grateful for that. Michelle and I were in regular contact at the office, throughout the experience and she was friendly and helpful, always happy to answer my questions or respond promptly by email. They have all been highly professional and I cannot thank them enough for all the help in getting us to our end goal. Thank you.

Our first experience of letting our 2 properties through Stags Tavistock. They could not be faulted. Very knowledgeable professional staff, who kept us well informed and updated throughout the process. Maria and Catherine were a pleasure to deal with.

Best avoided I'm afraid.

They haven't mastered the tricky art of returning telephone calls.

Three times we called to arrange a viewing, three times they promised to call back and yes three times they failed to have the courtesy to make contact, so we gave up with them.

Communication is everything when buying houses and I'm afraid Stags just don't get that, so we have happily now moved on to other more professional agents in Bridport who couldn't have been more helpful and actually phone back when they say they will - incredible !

We have used Stags in Tavistock to let our property. Maria and Catherine have been very friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and efficient. From going 'live' on their website to securing suitable tenants was all completed in about 10 days. I would highly recommend using Stags as they know the market very well and priced the property accordingly.

Where do I start? They valued our land badly, too short staffed to do anything professionally, didn't even pass on a really good pre-auction offer, uploaded fake bids up to the reserve, forgot to upload the documents in the legal pack and missed the all important Transfer which the buyer then refused to sign. Complete farce and it's probably immoral at best to have two Stags people pretending to bid against each other up to the reserve. Wouldn't touch with a barge pole