Sacking Estate Agent - Understanding the contract

Windsorcastle

john_white wrote: »

Your 'advice' to me when I asked about the valuation for using HN was to get 3 local EA's round. Surely that is wasting their time as I'd have no intention of using any of them.

Put it another way. 10 sellers use 3 EA's for valuations, none have any intention of using said EA's that's a couple of days work with no chance of receiving any income. It will all add up.

By getting 3 EAs round for a valuation when you intend to only sign up with one is, by definition, 'wasting' the time of at least 2 of them. That's just the way it works. If they were ever willing to negotiate on fee, rather than operating what is effectively price-fixing in a given local area, maybe people would be more sympathetic to them...

googler

john_white wrote: »

Your 'advice' to me when I asked about the valuation for using HN was to get 3 local EA's round. Surely that is wasting their time as I'd have no intention of using any of them. ....

My last place had neighbour issues and I didn't think that scenario would work well using an online agent. My current house, well, popular area, everything selling quickly. Online makes sense. But it's about the valuation I have issues.

Yup, that's the problem with bringing in someone from miles away - all they have access to is the same publicly-available sold prices that you can find yourself, but these sold prices don't give the full story.

A local EA worth their salt should know sold prices, but they should also know what didn't sell, what's been on the market for a while and isn't selling, etc etc. Possibly also the comparable condition of what sold and what didn't sell, and maybe some indication of what surveyors are valuing at.

If HN are travelling from their home base in (say) Birmingham to take on a sale in (say) Whitley Bay, where are they going to get any of this from? You can say that 'the seller can set their own selling price', but the seller isn't going to know any of this either.

Anyone can look at Zoopla and see the last few sales, and say - "Your house should sell for £X based on the recent sales" - but there's no point in marketing it at £X if someone else has already tried but failed to sell a similar house at £X, nor if someone is trying to sell at £X minus £5000 .....

googler

Windsorcastle wrote: »

By getting 3 EAs round for a valuation when you intend to only sign up with one is, by definition, 'wasting' the time of at least 2 of them.

But your previous suggestion was to 'waste the time' of all three, not just two.

It's fair competition for the agents to be put up against their rivals in the expectation that one will definitely be hired at the end of the process.

It's quite another thing to ask three of them to your home in the full knowledge that you won't be hiring any one of them.

john_white

Windsorcastle wrote: »

By getting 3 EAs round for a valuation when you intend to only sign up with one is, by definition, 'wasting' the time of at least 2 of them. That's just the way it works. If they were ever willing to negotiate on fee, rather than operating what is effectively price-fixing in a given local area, maybe people would be more sympathetic to them...

No, by having no intention of using any of them it's wasting time, by the EA selling you their benefits is just good business.

If you called 5 local EA's and said I'm getting 5 valuations can you come round. I'm sure all 5 would do so, and all 5 would tell you why they are the best. This is because they believe they have the best service etc. and have a good chance of winning your business

If you called 5 local EA's and said I'm getting 5 valuations but will use HN regardless, do you think any would turn up?

So in the first scenario they at least have chance and will have factored in to their costs the ratio of appointments/contracts.

I agree with you though, the fact they all have the same fee by region does make it more difficult. But, some people are better at negotiating

colinfragar

Thanks for sharing this information.

movilogo

I wouldn't write off high street estate agents just yet the good ones provide a service that can't be replicated online.

Problem is, you can't foresee how good your EA is going to be.

With online EA, you know they won't do much and thus reduced fee.

With high st EA, they may or may not do much yet you'll be paying a much higher fee.

Keekles

The idea that High Street EAs are going to be made redundant in 10 years with the presence of online services is ridiculous.

Last time I checked, all of my local supermarkets and clothing stores were still around; most (if not all) of which have websites that add to their service as opposed to replacing it.

sonastin

I realise that this is an old thread that has been resurrected but just as a warning to the OP... when I sacked my countrywide agent, they suddenly became the very paragon of efficiency. I had loads more communication from them and they were working ever so hard. Unfortunately their efforts were entirely aimed at recovering the fees they decided were due because they (mistakenly) thought I was selling to someone who had asked for a viewing after I sent the termination notice. If there is even a suspicion that you are continuing with the buyer mentioned in the OP, they will hound you to make sure they collect their extortionate fee. And the buyer's details will be available on the land registry for £4 a couple of months after the deal is done so they will be able to find out if it is the same buyers who complete the deal. This agency will put that level of effort into making sure they get their cut so don't fool yourself into thinking that if you terminate, you can still sell to the same people and not have to pay the fee.

On the other hand, if you are prepared to find other buyers, it is definitely worth looking at alternatives. I found an excellent high street agent to handle my sale for a fraction of the countrywide fee. Perhaps not as cheap as on online agent but I am definitely of the online-is-not-right-for-me persuasion and the new agent was well worth the extra.