Sole agency contract & general advice please

woodcutter2

Hi everyone,

We have just put our house on the market in Sheffield with a local estate agent. This is my first experience with selling a house. At first I was considering using an online agent to avoid comission charges and get them to list the property with Rightmove etc. and handle booking viewings and offers, but then got cold feet about their ability to manage offers if things got complicated. So we got several valuations from EAs all within 5% of each other. We ended up going with a smaller local agent that gave the highest valuation ( I guess we may have fallen for the agents tactic of using a higher valuation to secure our business as well as the old "we've got a list of potential buyers who will snap up your property" ploy)

We've had a few small issues with the agent during the past week to do with placement of our for sale sign and some problems with our online listings so I have been losing some confidence in them.

Then today we were scheduled to have our first viewing, an open viewing (the agents recommendation) with the aim of getting lots of people through the door and lots of interest. But last night I discovered they had listed our property as 3 bedroom instead of a 5 Bedroom, with the result that Rightmove searches and alerts would not find our listing. I got them to sort this first thing this morning but predictably we only had four couples come to the viewing.

So I'm considering sacking the agent but I'm not sure how quickly I can do this and move forward with relisting with another agent or online agent. (we are thinking of using myhouseadvert to list, any experiences?)

Our contract (see google plus below) does not have a fixed period for the sole agency and has a 14 day cooling off period, but I understand that if the agent has been instructed to market the property within 14 days there is no cooling off. So my understanding of the contract is that we can give 14 days written notice to cancel during which we cannot relist the property elsewhere. I'm guessing this still stands even though the agent has cocked things up! I would really appreciate anyone's opinion on this. Also we have paid £500 upfront, would we be entitled to any of this back? the brochures have not been printed yet.

What would you do in this situation?

Thanks

plus.google.com/photos/110585276225320981304/albums/6159897985360199953?authkey=CIzDwYaM7s-WNA

Annie1960

Looks like there is no tie-in period except for the 14 days' notice.

You seem to be stuck with any disbursements you have paid.

Next time, familiarise yourself with this before signing anything.

http://www.tpos.co.uk/downloads/TPOE27-3%20Code%20of%20Practice%20for%20Residential%20Estate%20Agents.pdf

Also, I really don't like the para about OTHER SERVICES. Sometimes, this can really mean 'we will threaten your buyer that if they don't use our services we will not recommend their offer to you'. There is a thread around here somewhere about a large national estate agent, Connells, on this point.

Next time, when you are considering an EA, ask for a blank copy of their contract in advance so you can scrutinise it. If there are any paras you don't like, then ask for them to be crossed out.

woodcutter2

Thanks for your reply and recommendations Annie1960!

Am I right in understanding that I can't start marketing my property elsewhere until 14 days after i terminate contract with this EA?

Can I get them to take down listings and stop marketing it in the meantime? I'm afraid they would have rights over any buyers that request viewings during that time, limiting my options for selling after 14 days.

I'm curious if you feel the standard estate agents expertise is necessary for the offers and bidding process, it seems to me that's about all they offer and online estate agents claim to offer the same service for a fraction of the cost.

What are the advantages of a standard agent over online services?