Increasing the asking price of your property

jjlandlord

The agent might only have 2 ads in news papers and their standard property description sheet to show, but to reach this they had to: inspect the property, take pictures, draw a floor plan, write an appealing description, get an EPC certificate, etc.

Suddenly £225 does not look that impressive anymore...

PeteHi

jjlandlord wrote: »

The agent might only have 2 ads in news papers and their standard property description sheet to show, but to reach this they had to: inspect the property, take pictures, draw a floor plan, write an appealing description, get an EPC certificate, etc.

Suddenly £225 does not look that impressive anymore...

I paid for the ads and marketing though?

They inspected the property, as did two other local agents. Its no different than a builder coming to quote for a job, you dont expect to be paid for it. Its the nature of their work.

I paid for the EPC certificate, through their recommended provider. Which they no doubt got a kickback from.

No other local agents charge a termination fee after a set period. I was verbally told upon our first meeting that I could 'take it off after 3 months no problem'. (yes, I should have read the smallprint', but thats irrelevant as the simple fact is I havent taken it off, they have.

Some great advice on here from both sides. Thanks all.

DVardysShadow

PeteHi wrote: »

.... No other local agents charge a termination fee after a set period.

But this agent only offers it as an alternative to an entirely up front fee.

PeteHi

DVardysShadow wrote: »

But this agent only offers it as an alternative to an entirely up front fee.

No other local agents charge an upfront fee for selling your property. Infact I've never heard of any doing so?

JimmyTheWig

So why did you pick this agent, Pete?

googler

PeteHi wrote: »

No other local agents charge an upfront fee for selling your property. Infact I've never heard of any doing so?

So, you picked an agent that charges not only a termination fee that you're now objecting to, but also an upfront fee that you've never encountered before.... ???

harrup

In my neck of the woods I have seen a couple of properties where the revised price was INCREASED rather than decreased over a period of time. The properties inquestiin had stayed with the same agent.

I only know the reason for one of them since I asked the EA: property needed a fair amount of work doing to it, owners put it on at 300K with the hope to ignite a bidding war if the price was lowish for that kind of property ( which,to be fair, it was). Unfortunately, not only was there not a bidding war, the only thing they got was very low offers which the owners weren't prepared to accept.

Thus, eventually, they put the property on at a signifiantly higher price....and it sold.

The other one I'm not entirely sure, but I have a faint notion that it involved the present owners needing more money than originally planned as the sale of the house they originally intented to buy didn't go through. The house they then wanted to move onto was more expensive, so they needed to sell their current house for more ( incidentally, it didn't). How happy their EA was about the price increase I don't know - but he did humour them with the adjustment upwards.

Whilst I think it is morally suspect and corrupt what you are doing as the primary impetus seems to weasel out of a justified fee for services received......unless your revised AP is completely absurd, I can't see how your EA has grounds to refuse. You can sell your house for whatever you want or need and if the EA wants to terminate the contract, they should terminate it. And forfeit their fee.

If your EA has any sense they WILL remarket your property for a higher AP with the proviso that if it doesn't sell - you owe them TWICE the current fee.

B

jjlandlord

PeteHi wrote: »

No other local agents charge a termination fee after a set period. I was verbally told upon our first meeting that I could 'take it off after 3 months no problem'. (yes, I should have read the smallprint', but thats irrelevant as the simple fact is I havent taken it off, they have.

Great concluding post, which after all that has been said, clearly shows that you're of total bad faith. And obviously that you knowingly picked the agent with the worst fee structure...

I don't know if it's me, but there seems to be an increase of time wasting questions from not too honest characters lately.

PeteHi

harrup wrote: »

you are doing as the primary impetus seems to weasel out of a justified fee for services received......unless your revised AP is completely absurd, I can't see how your EA has grounds to refuse. You can sell your house for whatever you want or need and if the EA wants to terminate the contract, they should terminate it. And forfeit their fee.

If your EA has any sense they WILL remarket your property for a higher AP with the proviso that if it doesn't sell - you owe them TWICE the current fee.

B

This is my point. It's my house and I can sell it for what I want. It's not like I'm doubling the asking price, just putting it up 17% higher than a neighbouring flat sold for 18 months ago. They haven't evn suggested an alternative figure !!!!!! Just "we are taking it off the market you owe us a termination fee".

Surely a higher sale price = a higher fee for them. Obviously they might have to wait years to get a bite, or I might be able to reduce the asking price in a few months time if nothings happening.

Still I'd have thought they'd want the business/be happy to have a property sat on their books that they dont have to agreesively market for the time being. But no, it seems they just want the cash.

Sharks.

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

So why did you pick this agent, Pete?

We all make mistakes Jimmy.

PeteHi

jjlandlord wrote: »

Great concluding post, which after all that has been said, clearly shows that you're of total bad faith. And obviously that you knowingly picked the agent with the worst fee structure...

I don't know if it's me, but there seems to be an increase of time wasting questions from not too honest characters lately.

How on earth does that show I'm of bad faith?

I didn't mislead them, present them with a non-negotiable contract, or terminate said contact.

Which agent do you work for again?