Estate Agents!

JackCarver

JackCarver

JackCarver

Associate
Joined
19 Jul 2004
Posts
513
Hey all, my Mum is selling her Dads house. Its been on market for 18 months with no decent offers. Now my sister wants to buy the house obviously from my Mum not via estate agents.
My mum has contacted the estate agents and they have advised the contract requires 28 days notice to cease selling? Is there a way out of this? It seems pointless! They have scheduled viewings for most days this week and next (now that they have had cancellation order) but as ive said my sister is having the house – seems pointless...

Other than just waiting it out for 28 days anybody aware of a way out?
 
Estate agents are scum. Lying, thieving, dirty, scum.

Tell the useless ... that 18 months is an absurd length of time for it to be on the market, that you consider them proven incompetent, and you are giving them no more chances to rob you.

edit: Forum swearies filter really is aggressive.
@westy, the contract is to sell the house. They've not done that. Contract frustrated, no? (not a lawyer)
 
Westyfield2 said:
Read the contract you have with them? Might be sole selling rights or something in it.
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Yea there is but surely if its not a public sale and its staying in the family they can just terminate the contract? id agree if it was ditching one agent for another... but this is not. Its taking off market for private family deal.
 
JonJ678 said:
Estate agents are scum. Lying, thieving, dirty, scum.

Tell the useless ... that 18 months is an absurd length of time for it to be on the market, that you consider them proven incompetent, and you are giving them no more chances to rob you.

edit: Forum swearies filter really is aggressive.
@Westy, the contract is to sell the house. They've not done that. Contract frustrated, no? (not a lawyer)
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No doubt due to over ambitious pricing, throughout 18 months you would have gone through the cycles of the busy periods and quiet periods. The agent would have advised you as to what they think they could achieve, which would have been inflated to get you on their books, but it's up to the vendor to manage expectations given the market conditions.
 
Adam said:
No doubt due to over ambitious pricing, throughout 18 months you would have gone through the cycles of the busy periods and quiet periods. The agent would have advised you as to what they think they could achieve, which would have been inflated to get you on their books, but it's up to the vendor to manage expectations given the market conditions.
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Agreed i always said it was on for too much... thats by the by now though, the family want to give to my sister but dont see the need to pay fees todo so which i agree with..
 
I'd just start the process if I were you - if you're sister needs a mortgage, etc. then it may take a couple of weeks for things to be organised from an administrative perspective. Then just delay the exchange until the 28 day period has expired.
 
Can't they just say they have changed their mind and take it off the market? People do it all the time even while a purchase is going through so I can't see there being a problem if you no longer want to sell.
 
Not sure how you've managed to wait 18 months only for it to be suddenly mega urgent that the house is immediately available for your sister and 28 days is too long to wait :P

As mentioned previously, sorting things out from your sister's end will probably take a little few weeks anyway, so just wait out the 28 days.
 
Read the contract. There will be clauses relating to withdrawal from the market. There may even be a fee for withdrawing it. As Toshj said above, it takes time for the solicitors to do their thing so start the process rolling. Conveyancing process takes a month to 6 weeks.

As to whether 18 months is reasonable with no sale in sight much depends on the local market, the sector in which you are selling, and indeed the price. It's certainly a long time on the market at the same price. Have they never spoken to you about reducing the price?

Speaking as an agent here. The trade gets a bad name sometimes but that's due to a few bad eggs and a media that likes to give it a bash. Most property professionals are fine and act with integrity. I'd suggest next time go for an agent regulated by the RICS or NAEA. You will find standards are higher and you have a means of recourse should things go wrong.
 
As already said here, read the contract.

When I sold my flat recently, there was a minimum time I had to sell it through the agent but after that I was free to cancel whenever I pleased. The contracts varied considerably between estate agents though.
 
As others have said - what's the issue here? Even if one of the viewings makes an offer, you don't have to accept it.

In fact, a get out could be basically to let the estate agent know you will tell anyone viewing that the house has already been sold and that the agent is wasting their time - wouldn't be good for their reputation I think... ;)
 
I've had the same issue, house been on market for over 6 months. Called to withdraw from sale as I had 2 weeks notice. Check the small print, it will say it. You usually have to put this in writing.

Remeber if your sister wants to buy tell the estate agent you no longer wnat any viewings arranged. also should you get any offers you dont have to accept

Good luck
 
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kwerk said:
If a house isn't selling it's priced to high. Simple as that.
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This. If it's not sold in 18 months it's on for too much.

Problem with some vendors is they have a price in their head they want that is just not realistic, and some agents will pander to that just to get the house on. In agency the game is to get the houses instructed, selling them is the easy-ish bit.

The_Baron said:
Or it has other problems.
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Wizzfizz said:
Maybe, but there could be a list of other things as to why.
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Which would be reflected in the price ;)

Case in point, my parents sold their house almost instantly and for the asking price about a year ago, if anything they could have probably got more for it but they were not interested in people offering any more once they'd accepted the offer.

House 2 doors down, exactly the same house type, built at same time (2010) etc, has been on the market since Dec 2011 and is still for sale. Throughout that time it's been up for the same price, 10k more than my parents sold for. It's a nice house but it's just on for too much, and whilst it's not as well kept inside as my folks was it's by no means a wreck, just needs a good clean!

Whilst I'm slightly bias as my folks run a very small local agency they aren't all cretins, yeah most of the larger/chain agencies are pretty scummy but a lot of the independents aren't.

People are quick to bash them as it's an easy target, but after some of the things I've seen and heard a lot of the time the problems lie with a vendor.
 
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