Estate Agent Fees

wksd

I see someone else has posted a thread similar, so I'm sorry.

You guys are so knowledgeable so hoping for some insight.
We agreed an EA fee of £4k on our flat which was put up for sale at £200-210k. We agreed to go with the EA as he is someone we had known of/experienced in the past, was very good talker, typical slimy EA but got on well with him and thought if anyone could do it, he could. We thought their valuation was too much but said we need £195k in the sale to buy our next property. I also explained if they can't reach that price i'd need to negotiate the fee. I have this in Whatsapp messages. They said 'sure, but it won't sell for less'.

Then the person we specifically hired from the well known agent left without telling us. Because of this, we accepted an offer of £190k because it was the highest we'd received in a long time and we found a property we liked.

Now other issues occurred mainly around communication. I'll bullet point to make easier:
- we stipulated that we didn't want the property off the market until the buyer had instructed a solicitor and the valuation had been arranged. This is in our notes. They did not oblige by this.
- I queried why and they didn't answer but said 'whoops there's been a change in management so we've had some troubles'
- I asked them to call the buyer to see where they were, the EA called back to say 'they're definitely still interested...' which didn't answer my questions. She then casually said 'and the valuation is for Wednesday'.
- I responded 'it can't be, you haven't asked and you do not have access to my property' she said she would call back.
- Wednesday came and I got a voicemail from EA saying 'valuer has been asking for your keys but we don't have them'
- does this mean they would have given the keys without letting me even know if they had them?!
- we can't give keys and must be warned as we have a dog in the property.
- eventually I moaned, they said it was all their fault and it's because of a change in staff.

Quite frankly 4k fees is extortionate for the price we are getting on the property and their inadequacies. Do we have a way of asking for a reduction? I have stressed the issues in emails and they called me the wrong name continuously.

Thrugelmir

wksd wrote: »

Quite frankly 4k fees is extortionate for the price we are getting on the property

Why did you accept the offer made if it was inadequate?

bigisi

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Why did you accept the offer made if it was inadequate?

Exactly, don't agree to something you're not happy with or improve your negotiation skills.

Comms69

wksd wrote: »

I see someone else has posted a thread similar, so I'm sorry.

You guys are so knowledgeable so hoping for some insight.
We agreed an EA fee of £4k on our flat which was put up for sale at £200-210k. We agreed to go with the EA as he is someone we had known of/experienced in the past, was very good talker, typical slimy EA but got on well with him and thought if anyone could do it, he could. We thought their valuation was too much but said we need £195k in the sale to buy our next property. I also explained if they can't reach that price i'd need to negotiate the fee. I have this in Whatsapp messages. They said 'sure, but it won't sell for less'.

Then the person we specifically hired from the well known agent left without telling us. Because of this, we accepted an offer of £190k because it was the highest we'd received in a long time and we found a property we liked. - You didn't accept a lower offer because they left. You accepted it because it was an acceptable price

Now other issues occurred mainly around communication. I'll bullet point to make easier:
- we stipulated that we didn't want the property off the market until the buyer had instructed a solicitor and the valuation had been arranged. This is in our notes. They did not oblige by this. - And? You've chased this up?
- I queried why and they didn't answer but said 'whoops there's been a change in management so we've had some troubles' - seems reasonable.
- I asked them to call the buyer to see where they were, the EA called back to say 'they're definitely still interested...' which didn't answer my questions. She then casually said 'and the valuation is for Wednesday'. - good
- I responded 'it can't be, you haven't asked and you do not have access to my property' she said she would call back.
- Wednesday came and I got a voicemail from EA saying 'valuer has been asking for your keys but we don't have them' - they told you about it in advance
- does this mean they would have given the keys without letting me even know if they had them?! - they did let you know...
- we can't give keys and must be warned as we have a dog in the property. - you were warned
- eventually I moaned, they said it was all their fault and it's because of a change in staff.

Quite frankly 4k fees is extortionate for the price we are getting on the property and their inadequacies. Do we have a way of asking for a reduction? I have stressed the issues in emails and they called me the wrong name continuously.

£4k is extortionate all of a sudden, now that it's sold?

Mutton_Geoff

wksd wrote: »

the person we specifically hired from the well known agent left without telling us

If you specifically wanted that person to sell your house rather than the firm, was this noted in your contract?


Whatsapp messages don't vary the contract you signed and at the end of the day, you agreed to sell at that price. You could have turned down the offer and waited.

wksd

Comms69 wrote: »

£4k is extortionate all of a sudden, now that it's sold?

We absolutely were not warned. I didn't explain this well. I called and the woman said casually 'they're going ahead, the valuation is booked for wednesday', I said 'it can't be i'm not home and not available' she said 'oh right, well maybe i'm wrong, i'll follow it up and let you know' she never let me know. I called back and didn't get a response.

wksd

Mutton_Geoff wrote: »

If you specifically wanted that person to sell your house rather than the firm, was this noted in your contract?


Whatsapp messages don't vary the contract you signed and at the end of the day, you agreed to sell at that price. You could have turned down the offer and waited.

Yes, we wrote this in the contract.

wksd

Sorry I'm new to this place and not very good at quoting as you can see above... whooops!

The price we agreed, 100%, but I made it clear in agreeing the contract that I would want the fixed fee only if it sells at £195k+ to which they said yes, verbally and over text. This is still a contract.

The price itself isn't the issue, selling at 190k is what someone was willing to pay, no issue. But I paid for a service that has been shambolic and to which they agreed. The EA that left said we needed a reduced fee but head office said no, apparently.