sole agent -12 weeks with 21 days notice ? Sole agent wording advise too

pingua

Hello -been awhile since sold a house so needing a bit of advise,

Is this a normal time frame? Initial period of 12 weeks and continuing beyond this initial period until ended by giving 21 days notice.


ALSO, SOLE AGENT blurb :
b) With a purchaser introduced by another agent during that period (irrespecitive of weather or not you have withdrawn your property from our agency within the sole agency period)


Does that bold bit above mean that even if we finish with these agents that we need to pay them ??


(Fee being charged is 0.8 % plus vat -I reckon that is o.k??)


Any words of wisdom most welcome!! Thanks.

Hawtin1584

Its not on common at all, pretty standard really. The bold bit means if you were to sell your house within their initial 12 week period to anyone that you would still be liable to pay their even if it was done privately, not through them or another agent.

Basically means they have the sole selling rights to sell your house for 12 weeks- pretty normal really.

If they wern't to sell your house in the 12 weeks, then you can give them your 21 days notice and withdraw from them.

It will be no sale no fee- so you wouldn't have to pay anything.

AlexMac

I'm no expert, but provided you choose the right agent to start with (we always take 3 comparisons and use local agents with experience in our price/type of home) 12 weeks seems reasonable. Sole agency is a no-brainer; anyone looking will register with all local agents and I assume your choice will put it on the major websites; but ask! Under 1% seems very fair- (we're used to having to negotiate 'em down to 1% in recent years).

The clause you quote also sounds pretty standard, but also a bit restrictive in that it would only come into force if you sacked them early, within the 1st 12 weeks. In which case, they would expect to be paid the fee even if another, new agent sold within that 12 week period. So you'd pay two agency fees.

Or they would similarly claim the fee if you were sloppy enough to sack them without 21 days/ 3 weeks notice in writing after the 1st 12 weeks, appointed a new agent, who then sold within that 3 week notice period... which you won't do?

So it's really down to whether you think your judgement is good enough to appoint the right agent. If not, you could simply ask 'em to delete that clause from the agreement... But that might make then doubt your intentions and fear that you'd mess 'em around or cancel early. And/or They'd up the % rate?

So while it seems reasonable, albeit a bit restrictive, I'd go for it for 0.8%. But its your call; good luck!

pingua

Thanks for the replies. Shall sign and email back to them now I know all should be good. Thanks again.

eddddy

Just a couple of clarifications:

Hawtin1584 wrote: »

Basically means they have the sole selling rights to sell your house for 12 weeks- pretty normal really.

The excerpt of the contract posted refers to Sole Agency, not Sole Selling Rights. They are different. Sole Agency allows you to sell to a private buyer (e.g. friend/family) without incurring EA fees. Sole Selling Rights means you would have to pay the EA's fees.

Hawtin1584 wrote: »

It will be no sale no fee- so you wouldn't have to pay anything.

Don't assume it's 'no sale no fee' unless it says so in the contract.
Look out for clauses about fees for introducing 'Ready, Willing and Able" purchasers.
And clauses about "Withdrawal fees"

(And if you find clauses like that, insist they are removed.)

AlexMac wrote: »

The clause you quote also sounds pretty standard, but also a bit restrictive in that it would only come into force if you sacked them early, within the 1st 12 weeks. In which case, they would expect to be paid the fee even if another, new agent sold within that 12 week period

It applies to the whole sole agency period, not just the first 12 weeks. (Typically, the sole agency period will continue until you terminate it.)


(To me 12 weeks minimum seems a bit long. I would aim to negotiate that down to 8 weeks. If the agent is useless, it's good to have the flexibilty to terminate sooner rather than later.)

TBagpuss

12 weeks is not uncommon for agents to put in their contracts, but it is usually negotiable, and many agents now have shorter periods as standard.
When I sold, there was a 28 days notice period in the agents agreement, (reduced to 14 days) and no initial tie in period. I think from memory that the other agents I spoke to but didn't instruct had a 6 week initial tie-in

I think it depends on what the market is like in your area. When I was selling, one of the questions I asked was how long the agents thought it was likely to take to find a buyer. I think if they are saying that the market is slow and that it's likely to take 8-12 weeks to find a buyer, then an 8-12 week tie-in is far more reasonable than if they say that they should be able to find a buyer in 4-6 weeks, but still want to tie you in for 12. If they are genuiniely confident that they can sell the porperty faster, then how do they justify the longer tie?

G_M

I would negotiate the 12 months down. If they turn out to be useless, 3 months is a long time to wait to change.

When talking to agents, I would always ask how confident they are of finding a buyer at the price they have recommended. 99 times out of 100 they will say very confidant (we have buyers on our books looking for exactly your kind of property).

After all, they want your business.

I would then reply that they obviously won't need 12 weeks, so let's make the contract 6 weeks (and then agree on 8).