Wanting to take property off the Market

DRP

jjlandlord wrote: »

Well, luckily it states £500 termination fee.

ah, i see - I took your post to mean that even if no termination clause was present, a fee would be chargable for the EA's work to date... :beer:

jjlandlord wrote: »

Is your property that cheap that 10k is a big difference?
You seem to have had unrealistic expectation: whatever valuation, did you really expect to easily sell at full asking price?
We still don't know why you wanted to sell. 10-20k is not a reason unless property is very cheap.

Whatever you contract states as termination fee you will have to pay the agent for the work they did.
It's not their fault if you don't know what you're doing, and nothing suggests that they did not do their job properly.

WineDarkSea

Flat a few doors down achieved asking price recently - £10k less and without parking space and leasehold as we are freehold with parking. Same floor space currently tenanted. EA told us ours was better, bigger kitchen, ground floor not first floor, better condition. They boasted about a flat going £15k over.

duchy

Realistically the agent works for you not the other way around.

Limit viewings to two specific evenings in the week (say Monday and Wednesday) and Saturday afternoons and tell the estate agent that these are the only times that are possible. No doubt they'll still try adn ring asking you to see someone who is "very keen" but just say "Oh what a shame that isn't possible-Can they do Wenesday instead?"

Take some of the stress off of yourself by taking a bit of control of the situation back .

WineDarkSea

Losing confidence in their valuation after just a couple of weeks isn't why I employed them. Plus their service has been abismal. They explained I would have a call once a week to discuss viewings. Twice I've had to chase them. In my book they aren't doing what they were expected to
do.

FireWyrm

WineDarkSea wrote: »

Losing confidence in their valuation after just a couple of weeks isn't why I employed them. Plus their service has been abismal. They explained I would have a call once a week to discuss viewings. Twice I've had to chase them. In my book they aren't doing what they were expected to
do.

Then go the DIY route. Nothing is stopping you unless you have some sort of exclusivity clause with your current agent. Plenty of people advertise in other mediums as well as using 'online' agents. At the risk of inviting Googler to flame me, I've used an online agent with very positive results. Search the forum for names like HouseNetwork etc and read what people have to say on the subject. You are not legally required to use an EA and you're not even required to use a solicitor for conveyancing although you would be wise to do so. In my opinion, traditional EA's arnt worth the price and do very little for their 'commission' and certainly nothing you couldnt arrange yourself or far more cheaply.

WineDarkSea

Thanks Duchy. I've already done this and felt like the bad person. I like having the livingroom covered in toys and hate constantly sweep and mopping floors. It's not fair on the kids to hide their toys and interrupt their naps/meals. We've had a fair amount of interest which is why it's been tough but also why I'm a little surprised by the loss of confidence. We have a low offer already so maybe they will pull it out of the bag. It really doesn't feel like they are working for me.

WineDarkSea

Firewyrm I am tempted to DIY and wish I'd done that to start with even if we did go the traditional route in the end. Maybe at the end of the 15 weeks we will try that.

RAS

If you are getting loads of interest, then you are probably priced rightish/look good on-line.

The problem for me is that you priced it at what you need to sell it at and just about everyone expects to pay less than the asking price these days.

Ivana_Tinkle

If you make it clear to the agent that you're not willing to sell unless it's for the asking price, then I'd imagine your problem is solved, since they're not going to be falling over themselves to do viewings!

BTW, I don't think you're being at all unreasonable to say that, if your house isn't worth as much as you were led to believe, then you're not willing/able to move after all. You're not obliged to just keep it on the market and keep dropping the price until it sells!

WineDarkSea

That's why one agent suggested marketing at £10k above but everyone would know it's a transparent trick to get our current asking price thanks to stamp duty. Scrapping stamp duty would make moving even with a loss more likely and the price wouldn't be artificial supressed. Bah. Lessons learnt.

One London agent suggested over 90% of their properties go for asking price or beyond. No idea if this is true.