Discreet marketing, but house has gone online

WeB

We decided to sell our house and went with an agent that offered the option to market the house discreetly (no sign in front garden, no ad online or in their shop window).


Reasons for this were twofold:

• We live in a small community, and wanted to avoid questions until we were ready.
• We suspect the property might not move fast over winter, so wanted to wait with going online until summer when properties here move faster. Hopefully avoiding people making low offers in summer because they could see the property had been online for months.

Agent takes pictures yesterday and today both my partner and myself get a couple of calls from people asking where we are moving to as they've seen the house online.


I'm sure rumours will spread fast now so the damage on that is done. What I don't know is whether the agent will be able to completely remove our property and all traces of it ever having been online from Rightmove when I contact them tomorrow. Does anyone know?



The one redeeming factor is that they've emailed me at 9pm as they spotted it themselves to apologize and say they would look in to it tomorrow. But I'm still quite upset with them for making this mistake as we were very clear about this. Any suggestions as to how to deal with that?

brixham

Sure you have your reasons but why be so shy ?
Surely if you want to sell to need to market your property. That means advertising ?

G_M

It sounds like a genuine mistake - though assuming you made your conditions perfectly clear and within the writtem agreement it's a pretty bad mistake.


They can remove it from their own, and other websites, but my understanding is that everything leaves a trace on the internet and once there it can be found again..


And since some neighbours already know, and the community is small, there's little you can do to keep your plans quiet.


You could sack the agent. You could even sue for breach of contract (though not sure how you'd quantify your loss), but neither action is going to undo what's been done.

Jonbvn

Selling your house and discrete marketing seems to be a contradiction. That is unless you are taking very high end properties, only marketed in select circles.

moneyistooshorttomention

You're sure that the people who mentioned it absolutely had seen it online??? - ie not just saying that that's how they know it's for sale?

I'd want to be very certain of that - as sometimes people have worked out that a house is for sale/soon will be and are going round telling others it is anyway (and it is an unofficial system that seems to exist in small places in some parts of the country - ie that "the local grapevine" gets told and gets first dibs on a house and it only goes onto the market officially after "the local grapevine" has had a chance to produce someone local to buy it).

I know the "local grapevine" system seems to be in operation where I am - and I'd never come across that idea before. So maybe someone knows personally and has put it "on the local grapevine" - rather than it having inadvertently gone onto Rightmove?? I only found out about it - because of the complaints my house had been put straight onto Rightmove (where I saw it/bought it) - rather than the "local grapevine" being told first.

If the house isn't being lived in for instance - then people are quite likely to be saying it's for sale anyway - if they know it recently was lived-in.

Davesnave

WeB wrote: »

I'm still quite upset with them for making this mistake as we were very clear about this. Any suggestions as to how to deal with that?

Stop taking yourself so seriously and laugh it off.

You had a strategy and it failed through what sounds like a genuine errror, but it was doomed, so far as keeping your plans secret in a small community is concerned. I know; I live in one too.

I dare say the data can be massaged or wiped. If your house is priced correctly it will sell anyway.

HHarry

Out of interest what does discrete marketing consist of?

No sale board, no window, and not online suggests no marketing, not discrete.

Comms69

Perhaps worrying less about what others think is the answer?

AdrianC

WeB wrote: »

We decided to sell our house and went with an agent that offered the option to market the house discreetly (no sign in front garden, no ad online or in their shop window).

So, umm, how do you expect to find a buyer?

Hopefully avoiding people making low offers in summer because they could see the property had been online for months.

You do know you can refuse an offer, right?

The one redeeming factor is that they've emailed me at 9pm as they spotted it themselves to apologize and say they would look in to it tomorrow. But I'm still quite upset with them for making this mistake as we were very clear about this. Any suggestions as to how to deal with that?

Laugh it off, and accept that it was a genuine human error made in very unusual circumstances.

moneyistooshorttomention

HHarry wrote: »

Out of interest what does discrete marketing consist of?

No sale board, no window, and not online suggests no marketing, not discrete.

No idea about "discrete" marketing.

But discreet marketing - and I'd take it as meaning = local estate agent being expected to have in mind customers looking for that sort of house and promptly ringing them up personally and telling them about it.

I'm not sure how well that system would work where I am now - as the main local estate agents at least are pretty useless and I have my doubts they'd do so.:cool:

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

No idea about "discrete" marketing.

But discreet marketing - and I'd take it as meaning = local estate agent being expected to have in mind customers looking for that sort of house and promptly ringing them up personally and telling them about it.

That's it. Used to happen pre-internet in the city where I once lived. There were never any sale boards, by mutual agreement between the council and the agents.

But imagining that such an arrangement could keep others from knowing a house was for sale, is pure fantasy.