Pros and Cons of using same Estate Agent as seller?

jon-jo

Hello;

We recently found a home we would like to buy, so we are going to put our current house on the market.

It seems simplest to use the estate agent who is selling the house we would like to buy to sell our house.....or is this a bad idea and will muddy the waters?

Any thoughts?

many thanks

JJ

Hoploz

It is a good idea as there are fewer people involved in the game of Chinese whispers.

Have other agents round and play them off against each other to make sure you pay the lowest rate possible, and have the shortest tie-in period possible. They should agree to be cheapest (even though they will act like you're stabbing them in the heart) as they will be getting both commissions if they keep the deal together

You remain free to use another agent if you prefer. But I think it's useful to keep it under one roof if convenient.

P.S. Remember when getting valuations from other agents, I would expect to get a realistic selling price from the agent you hope to buy from, as they will want the deal tied up as easily as possible. Another agent may give you a higher valuation to get your business, and leave it languishing unsold for 6 weeks!

HouseBuyer77

On the pro side the EA gets a double whack of commision when the sale completes so may spend more time on helping things along compared to a normal sale.

This may also mean they push your house harder when they market it as it's the missing link they need to get their comission.

When I bought the chain was tiny (me FTB -> vendor's property (where I now live) -> property with no onward chain). The EA was running both sales and was generally very helpful (there was a stressful point surrounding the insurance, needed copies of the insurance polices for all 4 maisonettes in the block, one of which was rented and the LL on holiday out of contact. The EA dealt with chasing this up which was very useful). Though unsure if this was because they're simply a decent EA or willing to put more effort in due to the double comission. Probably a mixture of the two.

dc197

We happened to buy a house represented by the same agent as the one we used to sell.

At the time of offering I was at first a bit worried that my buying position would be weakened because the agent would already know lots about me and my selling position, but it was unfounded.

Having completed, I can list no negatives. In fact, it was a positive because the experienced man who handled my sale was able to take the reins from the soppy newbie girl who was (badly) handling my purchase.

clockworks_2

I purposely went with the same agent as the seller. They have to commissions riding on the sale so in my opinion are more motivated to ensure the sales goes through without any hiccups. I found a property first then listed mine and they ensured there were people through the door and within 2 weeks I had three offers. They knew I had to sell in order to buy so got loads of people through the door.