Ballantynes Surveyors & Estate Agents Reviews 13

Great company. Rented in Edinburgh for 5 years. Never had problems always friendly and professional. They also push the landlord to maintain the apartment in a good state.

Delay after delay after delay. Very poor service. Didn't put property on ESPC despite repeated requests over several months. Very poor communication. Have cost us a lot of money. Have withdrawn property from them.

Big mistake. Look elsewhere for property sales in Edinburgh (Stockbridge).

We wasted 6 months of our time, on top of the wasted funds spent on two Home Reports and an architectural survey. As well as negatively impacting the perceived value of our property for future sales because it wasn't sold in that period.

Ballantyne's inability to sell our property has also cost us significantly in the purchase of our new home. First, our premium mortgage offer expired so we had to secure a lesser favourable offer from a different bank. Second, we had to pay the 6% second dwelling tax. Third, we incurred unnecessary bank fees because the original mortgage funds were already transferred to our solicitor's account so we had to pay extra to return these funds. Not to mention we've leveraged more cash outlay for the purchase than we would have wanted.

1. Strategy - There was no solid plan and foresight on how to market and sell our property during this extraordinary period between Oct'22 and Apr'23 (ie. Liz Truss mortgage crisis, cost of living crisis, increased interest rates, etc.) We feel little effort was made and it was assumed that the flat would sell itself because "Stockbridge is recession proof", which clearly was not the case. It was not "business as usual" during those months so some marketing creativity could have gone a long way.

2. Communication - It was downhill from the time our listing went live. We never received any updates unless we actively followed up. For viewings, we did not even get any courtesy texts to inform us when the viewings were done. This was difficult and an annoyance for us because we had a newborn at that time, and I was still recovering from my Caesarean section, so it was a challenge just to get the entire family (plus a dog) out the door. Some empathy and a quick text to inform us when the viewings were done so we could return home would have been appreciated. Even through the very end, it took 2+ weeks to get our keys back and we even had to go to their office to collect them ourselves because they couldn't be bothered.

3. Buyer - We lost two cash buyer offers. Referencing the 2nd buyer we lost, we were upfront since the beginning that we had no documents or consent for the alteration done to our property because we were not aware this was mandatory for flats (we moved from the States). As this was the deal breaker for the buyer, it could be said that had all of this been disclosed to his solicitors beforehand then we wouldn't have wasted our time. Alternatively, we could have been advised to secure a retroactive consent early in the sale process. And as far as cash buyers, we should have been given guidance to push the buyer to conclude missives earlier. This is our first time selling and we are not well versed with the in's and out's of property sales here in Scotland so we had a certain expectation that an estate agent would provide such guidance to facilitate the sale.

We moved to Edinburgh from South-East England as a family and initially found it very difficult to find suitable rental properties and to navigate the different system. After looking without success for some weeks, and feeling increasingly stressed, we were fortunate to meet MC from Ballantynes at a viewing and within a day, we had the perfect property for us and our two cats.

Throughout our time renting from Ballantynes, we found everyone friendly, helpful and professional. Our neighbours had a leak over a weekend and we had a couple of minor faults arise during the tenancy, and all were dealt with very promptly with the minimum of fuss.

Our deposit was returned in full in less than a week once we moved out.

Overall, we feel super grateful and lucky to have met ethical professionals working in the sector, especially given the very different experiences we have heard from friends and colleagues.

In particular, we would very happily recommend MC to other tenants and hope her hard work and dedication are appreciated by all at Ballantynes too!

Fantastic letting agents - one of the best we have ever dealt with in Edinburgh

Bad experience - do not keep tenants in their best interest during eviction process when the landlord is looking to sell, property manager is slow in answering calls and responding to requests unless pushed.

Ballantynes have been invaluable in selling my flat. I live at a distance and they have guided me through the selling process finding relevant people to help with any issues. They found me a buyer quickly. They have always been polite, friendly and business like. Thank you Ballantynes for all that you have done.

Very disappointed with their service. I called to ask some information about some properties and the agent was rude and unprofessional. In the end I didn’t get any useful information and furthermore this letting agent was in rush and tried to hung up the phone while I was asking another question. Wouldn’t recommend them.

Me and my partner couldnt ask for a better, more professional and supportive letting agency. I can honestly say that our experience with Ballantynes was amazing. People that we have dealt with either over the phone/or in person during flat inspections were always very helpful, kind and highly focused on delivering the highest standard of client/tenant support especially during pandemic.

A massive thanks to Kelly, and also Tracy from Finance Department at Ballantynes for being extremely helpful with us and for responding to our emails with such care and professionalism. Thank you ladies you totally ROCK!

We want to sincerely thank all of you(Ballantynes CREW)for being a truly an extraordinary people, that genuinely care,it is very rare to find a letting agency in Edinburgh of this calibre, so again thank you!

Kindest Regards
Pattie&Anna

Ps We will definitely miss our flat 24 xx

Very professional. Excellent service and communication from Kelly. Extremely helpful and fantastic at sorting things out quickly. I managed to get my flat rented pretty quickly so I am very pleased with the Ballantynes service. Highly recommended.

Excellent company. Very professional, caring and thorough. Great advice throughout. They definitely “go the extra mile”

Ballantynes Estate agents have sold two properties for us both were done in a very quick time frame.
The entire team were attentive and meticulous throughout making the process a lot less stressful.
We managed a quick sale and purchase in a matter of weeks despite being out the country when the property was being marketed.
Would highly recommend them.

It has bin a great day for you’re office. Ballantynes managed to sell the AC, where ALL the main National and highstreet estate agents Failed to deliver. They told us that they have never seen a property with so much publicity in all the media and tv.
It proves that realistic pricing and the out of this world professinal advice from Ballantynes was the right aproach.