The first episode of the BBC2 series, ‘Crazy Rich Agents’ aired on Sunday evening and has received a pasting in the press and on social media.
‘I wouldn’t buy a single thing from these grifters’ and ‘What a bunch of planks’ were among the kinder comments.
In truth, as we feared, the programme did indeed turn out to be pretty much a cross between Love Island, The Apprentice, and Glengarry Glen Ross, albeit with some seriously upmarket properties being showcased. It was awful, and awfully watchable. Probably exactly what the producers were aiming for.
Any thought of, ‘Why would a vendor even think about entrusting their properties to these people’ evaporated when it was clear the programme was giving those properties oodles of ‘free’ publicity.
The characters we have met so far are a disparate group ticking the boxes of a number of the required stereotypes that inhabit these sort of fly-on-the-wall programmes. There’s the broken childhood, the wannabee millionaire, the new-in-town hustler, all vying to be the one who will be chosen to be trained at HQ in New York. Good luck with that. Lambs and slaughter come to mind.
That said, these young and inexperienced so-called ‘agents’ are actually quite an endearing bunch. Their bosses perhaps rather less so…
Just how out of their depth they are was plain to see during the Open House of a property on the Bishops Avenue ‘Millionaires Row (or more like Billionaires these days) in north London. When a savvy potential buyer asked about rental yields the hapless ‘agent’ floundered like the fish out of water that he was.
The young man had blagged the instruction by touting for it through the gates of a neighbouring property. It was amusing to see that the For Sale board had carried the name of Glentree Estates whose owner, Trevor Abrahmson, has sold more properties on the Bishops Avenue than most of these young agents put together have had birthdays. We imagine that the pushy fella can expect a metaphorical clip round the ear if he ever runs into Trevor.
As this series is all about the pursuit of the big money the attraction of huge commissions is understandable, but if they grow up thinking the U.K. market is full of 3% commissions they have shock coming. And if they think they’ll win instructions by flopping onto the four poster beds or into the luxury baths whilst at the intial viewing, their potential vendors may think otherwise. It would not have surprised us if they’d raided the fridge and wine cellar en route round the house.
The story so far is as removed from the realities of estate agency as it’s possible to be. We shall be surprised if it improves in the coming weeks.
We’ll leave you with some of the other comments that followed the broadcast and would be interested to hear what you thought of it too.
“Seriously….these are a bunch of pumped up school kids, with zero property experience. I wouldn’t let them sell bananas. This is the bbc going all channel5.”
“I immediately hate everyone. But will keep watching.”
“Saved by the music, otherwise absolutely cringe. Complete clowns these agents, where did they find these people”
“Goodness, this young chap serving Costco nibbles and thinking he’s God’s gift to the world of real estate is not short on cockiness. ”
“I’m fascinated. It’s basically egomaniacs, greed and bullsh*t. But yeh, I’m fascinated.”
Crazy Rich Agents hits our screens on Sunday
