We were looking to purchase a property and approached mark ewin to see if they could help find something suitable. After an initial call where they asked if we had a house to sell and were informed that we don't, all they really seemed interested in was referring us to a mortgage broker. We haven't really heard anything from them since, even though they are listing properties within our criteria on their website. Edit - following posting of the review, mark ewin called me to try and resolve the matter. It turns out my email address was taken down incorrectly which is why I had not heard from them. Mark had offered to assist further with us locating a property however this isn't a service we require any longer but I wanted to update as mark was certainly proactive in trying to make things right once it was brought to his attention.

Communication was regular and I felt my agent was always working towards the goal of helping me complete as soon as possible. When I called the office there was always someone on hand to answer or take a message. The little hamper I received upon completion was also a lovely token to welcome me to my new home.

Overall not a pleasant first time buying experience. Staff clearly did not speak to one another or make notes (i.e. when we absolutely had to move by which was communicated from the start and led to myself almost not having a roof over my head). Instead of clicking reply to an email a staff member wrote down the incorrect email address and then I felt I was being made to blame for not reading an email that wasn't even sent to me (and then was passively aggressively forwarded to me). Even worse this happened twice. Communication at times was borderline rude, I was even told how the sellers were "further along in their onward purchase than yourselves". We were told to complete everything in 28 days, which we did, whereas the sellers didn't complete for over 2 months. Yet when we chased through the agent we felt Mark Ewin were trying to blame us and we felt we were constantly having to be defensive and back up our own actions. Mark Ewin could have handled this better by acknowledging we had finished our part and couldn't progress and chased the sellers. Instead it seemed they realised things had gone completely wrong too little too late, panicked and then got a staff member to try and take control of the situation 5 weeks after we raised concerns. When the sellers would want to chase us, it would be done immediately. But when we would email the estate agent saying something had not been done on their end for weeks excuses would be made or they would try to pass the blame onto us, which ultimately just caused further delays at sorting things out. Overall, though we acknowledge agents are on the house sellers side, they should not be belittling the people who are purchasing the property. I felt they had no regard at all for our side and were only 100% looking for the sellers best interests. We felt they did not want to make our first time buying experience special and they did not seem overly bothered at how we felt about the situation or seem to take on board any of the concerns and feelings we had. I hoped by going with a small local agent to get care, attention and a good service, however I will not be using them again and this has put me off small estate agents all together. At least with larger chains I can be certain the staff are trained correctly and know how to communicate with customers in a professional manner.