Receiving a private offer on house sale

nelly_2

Raja wrote:

I need to bring up an old thread:

I have for sale boards outside my house; a neighbour of mine (whom I told about the sale of the place before the sale boards went up) has placed an offer on my place privately. Would I still need to pay the agent their fees? (The place has been on the market for a few months).

Where do I stand as per the letter of the law? Would there need to be specific clauses in a contract for a agent to charge their fees?

Ehh?
Had an offer before it went on the market but "(The place has been on the market for a few months)."

Why not sell it months ago then?

jockettuk

cally i was in a similar situation to you .. i hadnt put my house up for sale yet but as it was no secret that i was moving word got round and i had a friend tell her friend. but thats were the easy part was

the sale fell through as he was so sure my house was in a radon area but still wanted to live there if i dropped the price. he was picking faults with the searches but kept wanting to drop the price.. then they said my solicitor was holding things up which i can believe as he was useless but i offered to change solicitors to the same company as they were using but no that wasnt good enough.. in the end we all agreed it wasnt working and i was shattered with all the questions and knocking at the door to look at this or that. Im definately going through a estate agent this time let them feed off the stupid questions.. ps i live on a main road into the village so a board up is going to be enough advertising for my house lol

Raja_3

nelly wrote:

Ehh?
Had an offer before it went on the market but "(The place has been on the market for a few months)."

Why not sell it months ago then?

I had told the neighbour that the property was going up for sale. At that time, he placed an offer, which we had declined, he has now come back with an offer we are willing to accept.

Gingermonkey_2

From friend's experience if an estate agent introduces the buyer then they will insist on taking their fee. A friend of mine got wind of the fact that a colleague of his had an appointment to view his property, he then showed it excluding the estate agent and she went on to make an offer. He managed to negotiate his estate agents fee down, and I think he was fortunate!

Another friend who was selling dual agent received an offer via one estate agent who then proceeded to dawdle and be remarkably ineffectual. She was advised by her solicitor that contacting the prospective buyer and asking him to proceed via her second agent was friutless as the agent who initially introduced the buyer can claim some sort of rights.

However there are numerous websites etc where you can advertise your property independently; therefore from what has happened here instinct tells me that if a seller is not introduced by an estate agent then bob's your uncle!

silvercar

From friend's experience if an estate agent introduces the buyer then they will insist on taking their fee.

WHich is why the EA has to now agree a fee. They cannot pluck a figure out of the air that the seller hasn't signed upto.

Gingermonkey_2

Yes there is an estate agents fee, but he has managed to negotiate it down

Jorgan_2

Another friend who was selling dual agent received an offer via one estate agent who then proceeded to dawdle and be remarkably ineffectual. She was advised by her solicitor that contacting the prospective buyer and asking him to proceed via her second agent was friutless as the agent who initially introduced the buyer can claim some sort of rights.

Had the second agent become involved, they could have both cliamed a fee,, they had good advice from their solicitor.

However there are numerous websites etc where you can advertise your property independently; therefore from what has happened here instinct tells me that if a seller is not introduced by an estate agent then bob's your uncle!

Advertising your property independently all depends on the type of agreement you have signed with your agent, just don't think that you can adverise elsewhere, check what you have signed. Some agents will have it their contract that if somebody becomes aware that the property is for sale via their details, boards, adverts, websites then that is an effective introduction. Others have sole selling rights, bascically the agent is entitled to their fee no matter who buys it or how they were introduced.