Increasing the asking price of your property

somethingcorporate

Yep - in future you should pick a less crap agent!

I've had my property up a number of times and never paid a penny until it sold.

JimmyTheWig

How much higher do you want to make it?
Were you expecting to accept offers on the original price?
Would you expect to accept offers on the new price?

My thinking is if it is on for, say, £150k you may expect to sell it for £140k.
If you want to raise the price to £160k with a view to getting £150k you could just leave it on as it is and not accept any offers under the asking price.
But if you are asking to increase the price to £200k then that is exactly the same as saying that you don't want to sell it - in which case I would expect them to expect their fee.

It's all a little silly.
Would they want their exit fee from you if you refused all viewings?
Or told people during the viewings that you didn't want to sell / told them bad things about the place?
Or refused all offers (even those at or above the asking price)?

If they are not going to let you cancel without paying a fee then you may be left in the situation where you have to accept an offer but not instruct a solicitor until you have found a property to move to. As you won't find such a property with the asking price as it is then the sale will never proceed. Presumably, then, you could call it a day when the contract period expires. But that would be well out of order on the prospective buyers!

I think it would be reasonable for the agents to charge a fee if you were wanting to cancel the contract to move to a different agent. But to charge you upfront and charge you to take it off the market seems particularly unreasonable to me.

PeteHi

somethingcorporate wrote: »

£250 to withdraw? what an absolute con.

How they stay in business is mind-boggling.

by charging marketing fees AND withdrawal fees

JimmyTheWig

GDB2222 wrote: »

indefinite term for the contract is an unfair contract term

An indefinite contract? I missed that bit! That's terrible!

PeteHi

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

How much higher do you want to make it?
Were you expecting to accept offers on the original price?
Would you expect to accept offers on the new price?

My thinking is if it is on for, say, £150k you may expect to sell it for £140k.
If you want to raise the price to £160k with a view to getting £150k you could just leave it on as it is and not accept any offers under the asking price.
But if you are asking to increase the price to £200k then that is exactly the same as saying that you don't want to sell it - in which case I would expect them to expect their fee.

It's all a little silly.
Would they want their exit fee from you if you refused all viewings?
Or told people during the viewings that you didn't want to sell / told them bad things about the place?
Or refused all offers (even those at or above the asking price)?

If they are not going to let you cancel without paying a fee then you may be left in the situation where you have to accept an offer but not instruct a solicitor until you have found a property to move to. As you won't find such a property with the asking price as it is then the sale will never proceed. Presumably, then, you could call it a day when the contract period expires. But that would be well out of order on the prospective buyers!

I think it would be reasonable for the agents to charge a fee if you were wanting to cancel the contract to move to a different agent. But to charge you upfront and charge you to take it off the market seems particularly unreasonable to me.

Exactly. I'm happy to keep it on with them, theyve been ok as EA's go.

I'm sure they charge this marketing fee upfront to cover themselves in circusmtances like this. Seems a bizarre thing to do so if not


Thanks for all your advice everyone. I'll keep you posted.

If I'm not back on within a fortnight can you get MSE Martin to wear a "Free Pete" T on GMTV?

PeteHi

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

An indefinite contract? I missed that bit! That's terrible!

yes, minimum marketing period (we're well out of that), but with a termination fee thats payable forever

Even if they terminate the contract.

Its a great business model tbf

motherofstudents

I notice you are in Bury but I don't know of any agents with terms like that. Is it an internet agent ? If it's local maybe you can give a clue as to who they are without actually naming them ?

GDB2222

PeteHi wrote: »

cheers!

It looks like I'm not the only one in this situation;

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=65546&st=20

The withdrawal fee charge has NO expiry date and was not negotiable = i.e I can never take it off the market with them without paying them... if I sold the house in 50 years I'd still have to pay them = unfair contract.

Still doesnt remove the fact its them refusing to market it.

That link shows a contract under which the charge is payable if the agency terminate the agency agreement. Is your contract different?

jjlandlord

There's no unfair term: You instructed them to sell your property, and they'll charge you 1.25% of the achieved price, or £275 if you withdraw the property from the market.

This is all nonsense: Either you want to sell and go for it, or you do not and pay the agent for their time instead of trying to pin the blame on them.

People (and judges) are not stupid. They'll easily see through what you're trying to do, which is in effect to withdraw the property from the market by making it unsaleable.

And read contracts you sign in the future.

googler

DVardysShadow wrote: »

I think that the asking price is an implied part of the contract. The agent does his own valuation and suggests what price to put it on for. You engage the agent to sell it at that price and he puts in his effort based on that price. If you increase the price, the place becomes impossible to sell - you have moved the goal posts for the agent to claim his commission.

And if the other party to a contract does not agree with the goal posts being moved, they really don't have to accept it. In this case, when the OP moves the goal posts it is tantamount to OP cancelling the contract, even though it is the Agent who calls an end to it.

The OP quotes the contract as stating the property will be marketed at an initial price of £X. Although there's nothing in the contract specific to an increase or decrease, I'm inclined to agree with the above.

If it doesn't sell at the initial price, the conventional route is that either agent or owner suggests a reduction, perhaps some discussion takes place about the level of same, and - by mutual consent - the contract is amended to the new price.

OP wants to amend the contract in the opposite direction, but agent doesn't consent to this amendment to the contract.