Buying the EAs house?

sonastin

My house is under offer and the property I wanted to buy has been withdrawn from the market, so now I'm on the hunt for somewhere else.

One of the properties I've arranged to view has this on its rightmove page:
"Please note the vendor of this property is an employee of [Estage Agency]. This information is provided to comply with Section 21 of the Estate Agents Act 1979."

So if the vendor works for the EA, does this mean that it is more realistically priced? Does this mean it will be harder to negotiate?

Any thoughts on the pros, cons and pitfalls of buying an Estate Agent's house?

G_M

Don't see the difference. Just remember when you negotiate through the agent on price you are actually negotiating direct with the vendor.

When viewing, keep your thoughts to yourself, and take what the agent says with a pinch of salt.

lee636

Any probs with the 'seller' and you know where he works! :rotfl:

betmunch

You wont be negotiating direct with the vendor, they should allow someone else in the office to do it.

Buying and Estate Agents house doesnt need to be a problem. Obviously there will be more of a concern over them knowing your budget so you must stand firm on your offer even if you have told him in the past you could buy at £xxx,xxx.

I bought mine from the director of an estate agent and it cause no extra problems than I believe I would have had buying any regular stock from the idiot!

poppysarah

Has it been bought cheap to sell on? A local ea did this and ended up lumbered with a couple of houses that refused to sell for what he'd paid.

Check on houseprices.co.uk

Negotiate hard or walk away. Don't feel embarrassed about offering low.
The current level of news about house prices isn't positive.

G_M

You wont be negotiating direct with the vendor, they should allow someone else in the office to do it.

Sorry, I was inexact in my wording. You'll be negotiating with a colleague of the vendor's, who is likely to be a friend, so it comes to the same thing!

betmunch

Either way it doesnt matter who you are negotiating with if you offer what you think is fair and dont go higher then you will either come to an agreement or not.

Personnally I dont see the issue with negotiation direct with the vendor, if anything it would speed things up!

zappahey

You could end up spending more.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.05/realestate.html

It's American, but I assume the principles will be the same.

it turns out an agent keeps her own home on the market an average of 10 days longer and sells it for an extra 3-plus percent, or $10,000 on a $300,000 house.

sonastin

The EA that is selling this place is also the one selling the one that was withdrawn - which was on the market for about 10% less than this. Hopefully that means they'll see this as a stretch for me so a low offer won't be pushed too hard. Property bee tells me its been on the market for about 5 months with 1 price drop so far. I'm not sure how desperate they are to sell but at least if they're in the industry they'll have a realistic understanding of how slow the market is at the moment!

sonastin

zappahey wrote: »

You could end up spending more.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.05/realestate.html

It's American, but I assume the principles will be the same.

I'd read that before (in Freakonomics I think) but I couldn't quite remember what it said - I just knew that there was something about buying an EA's property.

Thanks for the reminder. I know what to watch out for now! Its number 2 of 4 that we're going to view next weekend so it might not be what we want anyway.