Blogging my Sale

courtjester

earner wrote:

Actually, the more I think about it, the more tempted I am to forget estate agencies and give it a whirl myself... moron that I am, I actually think I could find and manage a buyer/buying process while working 80 hours a week

Oh well. The idea was nice for that 10 seconds!

If you sell to someone on your first agents list, you will owe nothing to the second agent.

You are though stuck with the contract you signed with the second agent.

Unless there is a specific cooling off period stated in the terms, I don't think you can claim a statutory cooling off period - that is generally only for services that are not starting immediately. You signed and agreed for the agent to commence marketing straight away, so that means the contract and your liability runs from that point. You might have had an option had you done something right away rather than left it 14 days.

However, that doesn't mean you have to let the agent continue marketing - you are entitled to withdraw the property from sale at any time. The contract gives them the right to market the property as sole (selling rights?) agent from the date stated for the period stated - therefore, you cannot sell to anyone else or market the property during that time.

But if you are still intending to sell later, you can cancel the contract within the terms stated (usually from 14 days after the 12 weeks expire on written notice).

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Don't be so hasty about selling privately - the only reason more people don't do this is not because it doesn't work, it's because people *assume* that only agents can sell property so don't consider the alternatives. Also there is far too much belief in what agents say and their scaremongering without consideration to *why* agents might want to try and talk you out of selling yourself... :cool:

You CAN market and sell your home yourself - it's just legwork, not rocket science no matter how much agents will try and persuade you to the contrary. Agents are salespeople and they are very good at (hard) selling themselves to customers. It doesn't make them good at selling property and there is absolutely no reason why you should not take on the role of selling directly - there are some very good internet sites for private sellers which offer an easy self-sell route to the mass market.

You can not only save a fortune in fees, but also retain complete control over the process and avoid all the real problems associated with dealing through agents.