estate agent agreements

Korky_2

Our estate agent is not perfoming well, and we would like to advertise the property ourself. In the event that we get a sale what is the financial position regarding estate agents fees, as we have a sole agency agreement with him for 26 weeks.

david29dpo

A lot will depend on the contract you signed. How long are you into the 26 weeks?

courtjester

A standard Sole Agency agreement does not prevent you from advertising privately either in the newspaper or with an internet service providing that you don't use a service providing any estate agency options.

If you find a buyer privately, you will not owe the agent any commission under your contract, so there is no need to wait until the agreement expires.

You need to make sure you choose a decent established service if you choose to advertise online as many of the smaller operations don't comply with the OFT guidance on this area.

Google for "sell my house" for the leading UK services and ignore the sponsored ads top and right.

Badger_Lady

A lot of the 'private selling' website are a rip-off - they sell themselves by comparing "the cost of £80 compared to £2k for an estate agent!" but they actually have very low visibility and are not worth splashing out on.

I sold my last flat privately (within 2 months), and weeded out several decent websites that were free, two of which feed into "Fish4Homes", which is widely used by local papers, Channel 4 etc.

The best were:

http://www.housecompany.co.uk

http://www.hotproperty.co.uk

http://www.housefinderuk.com

http://www.movehomeonline.co.uk

You can also list it on all the standard FreeAd sites when you have some spare time!

I also popped a classified into my local paper, set up a quick website advertising my flat and changed my answerphone message to "If you're interested in buying a flat in Xville, visit www.etc". Put posters up in the window and a big "For Sale" sign, a message on the intranet at work, and printed up some A4 leaflets to give people who showed an interest.

I got loads of enquiries, 3 viewings and sold to a very reliable investment buyer within 2 months (through one of the above websites, though I forget which!).

I did have an estate agent working for me at the time as well - I just told them their services were no longer required.

Becks045

We are selling a house at the moment and signed a sole agency agreement for 16 weeks.

They are useless, after 5 weeks, they have got us 1 viewing. Given us zero feedback and even the 1 viewing they did get, they claimed they were too busy to do it so we had to do it ourselves!

I have started to advertise privatley which they have spotted and phoned me up and had a real go at me! I said, if you were doing your job properly then I wouldn't have to take such measures.

Anyway they claim even if I do find a private buyer, while I am in this sole agency period, I will still have to pay them commission?!!!

Badger_Lady

Becks045 wrote:

Anyway they claim even if I do find a private buyer, while I am in this sole agency period, I will still have to pay them commission?!!!

Only if you have signed up to "Sole Selling Rights", or you're advertising through a service that counts as a second estate agent (rather than just promotion).

Check your contract, they might be having you on...

JoJoArmani

Becks045 wrote: »

We are selling a house at the moment and signed a sole agency agreement for 16 weeks.

They are useless, after 5 weeks, they have got us 1 viewing. Given us zero feedback and even the 1 viewing they did get, they claimed they were too busy to do it so we had to do it ourselves!

I have started to advertise privatley which they have spotted and phoned me up and had a real go at me! I said, if you were doing your job properly then I wouldn't have to take such measures.

Anyway they claim even if I do find a private buyer, while I am in this sole agency period, I will still have to pay them commission?!!!

It's not Farrell Heyworth is it!! LOL - your agents sound very similar to my(soon to be ex) EA...

MrsJ2008

JoJoArmani wrote: »

It's not Farrell Heyworth is it!! LOL - your agents sound very similar to my(soon to be ex) EA...

I'm looking at employing Farrell Heyworth but they want £250 + vat upfront (not the usual no sell no fee business). Would you still go with them?