£1000 buyer's mortgage incentive - confusion as a vendor

DaveBrez

Hi all,

my friend has recently put her house on the market using an agent in the Sequence group of companies. It has been marketed with the £1000 buyer's incentive.

I can't contact her estate agent for obvious reasons but I'd like know who pays the £1000 incentive and if anyone out there has experience of this incentive. I believe it is the vendor that pays and I don't think my friend realizes that she might have to pay £1000 out of the proceeds of the house sale.

So I've got a few issues with this as I currently understand it:

• The vendor subsidizes a scheme to market Sequence company conveyancing and/or mortgage advisor.
• The vendor essentially subsidizes the conveyancing and mortgage advice.
• She's been told the incentive is there to ensure that the buyer is able to afford the property! This sounds like a very spurious reason to me.
• If she has to pay £1000 from the proceeds - it has not been explained to her - she did not know that £1000 could come out of the sale.
• I've seen the paperwork for the sale and it only shows commission and costs. Maybe I should have taken a closer look, there might be something in there.

Update 1, she phoned the estate agent:

• I've found the seller's guide. It clearly states that the vendor will need to pay £1000, this being "In return for a £1,000 commitment from you".
• Estate agent says to settle for £1000 more, however they've already been given a target figure.
• Estate agent says that if the buyer uses their conveyancing then we'll be sure that the buyer can afford to make the purchase. Would this be taking advantage of a privileged position?
• Estate agent says that a cash buyer would not qualify for this incentive. However, the seller's guide clearly states "Cash buyers who don’t need a mortgage to finance their purchase can still qualify for the £1,000 incentive provided that they use Sequence Home Conveyancing for the legal work."

Update 2, not actually signed up:

• Turns out herself and hubby not had signed up for this. It hadn't been discussed with them and on checking the docs they had not signed the section accepting the incentive scheme.

Cheers,
Dave

Better_Days

This has been discussed recently and you may find these threads useful. Basically its a gimmick and I wouldn't touch WHB with a bargepole as a seller and would prefer not to as a buyer.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4761286

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4447255

DaveBrez

Those were interesting threads.

There was an interesting quote from someone who claimed to have worked in this group of companies where they claimed that the estate agent quoted offers from the buyer to the vendor minus £1000. On the face of it, if true, it would appear to be dishonest and a manipulation of both parties by the estate agent.

Better_Days wrote: »

This has been discussed recently and you may find these threads useful. Basically its a gimmick and I wouldn't touch WHB with a bargepole as a seller and would prefer not to as a buyer.
...

Better_Days

I have spoken to an EA who used to work for WHB and she told me that one of the reasons she left was because of WHB unprofessional conduct. She joined a local independent EA and WHB immediately targeted all the properties marketed by the local EA attempting to poach vendors.

DaveBrez: On the face of it, if true, it would appear to be dishonest and a manipulation of both parties by the estate agent

Wouldn't surprise me in the least.

DaveBrez

Thanks again.

I'll try to figure out how she opted in to this.

The seller's guide shows that it is possible to opt out so I think she'll probably have to consider that - although the agent will have lost their incentive to sell this house by possibly losing £1000 that would have gone to internal fees! I really hope the agents are better than that!

Better_Days wrote: »

I have spoken to an EA who used to work for WHB and she told me that one of the reasons she left was because of WHB unprofessional conduct. She joined a local independent EA and WHB immediately targeted all the properties marketed by the local EA attempting to poach vendors.


Wouldn't surprise me in the least.