Contacting Vendors Directly

AKG23

Hello,

Before Christmas my partner and I put an offer on a flat which was rejected. Over the Christmas period we noticed that the property was removed from Zoopla and Rightmove and after emailing the estate agent he advised that the vendors were no longer advertising with them. Last week we decided to send a letter directly to the vendor enquiring if they were still wishing to sell and if so would they consider selling directly. The next day the property reappears online with a different estate agent.

The vendor has not yet replied to our letter but I wonder if anyone could advise whether the vendor would be permitted to pursue selling to us directly or whether the contract with their estate agents (new and old) would prohibit this? We are unable to pay the asking price so we were hoping that the vendor would take a little less if they were able to avoid paying agents fees and commission.

Thanks!

Slinky

The vendor cannot sell to you without paying fees to the old agent (they introduced you, why shouldn't they be paid?). If you try and book through the new agent, they could end up paying fees to both.


If you want to revisit the property or make another offer, it must go via the agent that introduced you, even if they are no longer actively marketing the property.

walwyn1978

Depending on the contract they have had with EA 1, selling direct to you would still incur agent fees as the agent would be able to demonstrate ‘introduction’ of you to the property.

Obviously that depends on the contract the vendor signed but that’s fairly standard.

AKG23

Thanks very much for your quick response. I thought that might be the case (otherwise everyone would do it) just unsure how to proceed because we don't need to view the property again so we don't need to involve the new agents.

Bossypants

If you want to make another offer, either contact EA1 or contact the vendor, but assume that they will still be paying fees to EA1, so are unlikely to be interested unless you can increase your offer from the previously rejected one.

Slinky

AKG23 wrote: »

Thanks very much for your quick response. I thought that might be the case (otherwise everyone would do it) just unsure how to proceed because we don't need to view the property again so we don't need to involve the new agents.

If you want to increase your offer, contact the old agents. They'll be more than happy to put it forward since it gives them a chance of getting a sale. At the moment with it having gone off their books, they've got no chance at all other than from people they've already introduced.

ReadingTim

Whilst no-one has too much love for estate agents, if the vendors are willing to do the dirty on their former agents, who's to say they won't also do the dirty on you, and dump you at the 11th hour for someone who can offer what they're looking for?

Even if you could afford this place, I'm not so sure you should be doing business with the sort of people who'd take you up on your offer.

eddddy

AKG23 wrote: »

Thanks very much for your quick response. I thought that might be the case (otherwise everyone would do it) just unsure how to proceed because we don't need to view the property again so we don't need to involve the new agents.

Even if you do want to view the property again, it's important to arrange it through the old agent - and not the new one.

If you want, as a starting point, you can call the old agent to say that your offer is still on the table - and ask if the seller likely to reconsider it.

The seller is likely to still say 'no', but it's a way of restarting the discussion, and you can go on to increase your offer, if you want.

Bossypants

ReadingTim wrote: »

Whilst no-one has too much love for estate agents, if the vendors are willing to do the dirty on their former agents, who's to say they won't also do the dirty on you, and dump you at the 11th hour for someone who can offer what they're looking for?

I'm not sure this is very fair, agents are employed to do a job and clients are fully entitled to replace them should they fail to do it. They need to respect the terms of the contract they signed, of course, and pay the original agent their fees should the house end up getting sold to a buyer introduced by that agent, but the mere fact of switching agents tells you nothing about the character of the vendor.

AKG23

Thank you all very much for your help. Based on what you’ve said I’ll give the vendors a couple more days to get back to me (just to hear if there’s a way they’d like us to proceed) but otherwise I’ll contact EA1 and leave EA2 out of it.

ReadingTim

Bossypants wrote: »

I'm not sure this is very fair, agents are employed to do a job and clients are fully entitled to replace them should they fail to do it. They need to respect the terms of the contract they signed, of course, and pay the original agent their fees should the house end up getting sold to a buyer introduced by that agent, but the mere fact of switching agents tells you nothing about the character of the vendor.

My point wasn't about the mere fact of switching agent - that's neither here nor there - it was about the vendor not respecting the previous contract and accepting a direct offer in the hope of avoiding the fees. Now, it's possible that they don't understand the terms of the contract they've signed, but if they do and are chancing it, then I'm not so sure they're the sort of people you would want to do business with.