Estate Agent Advice

Ready2move

Hi guys

Hoping you can give me some of your expert advice.

I and the OH have recently put our shared ownership property on the market with an EA (as the housing association were useless). The EA came round last week and we subsequently put it on the market.

I suppose I should have seen it coming, but he was spent about ten mins discussing what our budget for next place would be, where we are looking to live and what they have available. Also if we wanted to speak to their own mortgage advisor.

I have some reservations about using the same estate agent to buy and sell, and also using their mortgage advisor. By doing the above am I essentially laying all of my cards on the table and taking away any bargaining power that I have? As I am assuming that he would know what deposit I have available and what my budget would be.

I am quite keen to see an independent whole of market broker (as you guys frequently recommend here) and also to use any other estate agent but the one we're selling with.

Also my girlfriend let slip that she liked the look of one of the properties on their website, and now every time he rings concerning viewing etc the topic of viewing this property seems to be the agenda.

Sorry for rambling, I was just looking for your educated opinion on what to do

Being a keen lurker on the MSE board I’m obviously very keen to the get the property I want for the cheapest possible price.

Thanks for all your help

Doozergirl

You can't really exclude properties on his list as you don't know who the property you want would be marketed with. I don't think there is anything wrong with buying and selling with the same agent - I just wouldn't use an agent to sell my house just because I thought it would help me get another house on their books.

If you feel your privacy would be breached by using their broker, then use someone else, but one TV program doesn't make an entire industry! That said, I still wouldn't bother unless they were whole of market either!

I think you're probably being overcautious.

Claudie

We used the same agent to sell and buy - we actually thought it was a good thing as it helped with the communication and we built up a good relationship with him. We arranged our own mortgage through the internet so that didn't come into it but it worked well for us.

MJMum

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Ready2move

Thanks for your quick replies guys, good to hear from those who have had experience with this situation.

I am not 100% against the idea and if me and my OH found a property that we loved i am sure that we would still put in an offer.

Your comments echo what my girlfriend has said that i am probably just beeing over cautious, and to be honest i hadn't really looked at the positives, thank you for pointing those out to me.

Thanks again