can you have 2 estate agents?

jubi lee · 31-05-2007 3:40pm #1

hi
i'm looking to sell my Apt. i am in a bit of a hurry as i have put a deposit down on a new house and it will be ready in 4 weeks. contracts are already with my solicitor for the new house.

i have my apt with one of the well known estate agents however they are finding it hard to get people through the door and as a result i am now worried that the purchase of the new property will be in danger if i don't sell!it's been up for sale for a month and have had 3 viewings and 2 no shows. no offers. estate agent assures me property is in perfect condition etc and that i do not need to do anything to it to make it more attractive (its 1yr old)

so my question is, is it possible to have 2 seperate agents trying to sell the property?

cold_filter · 31-05-2007 3:43pm

I thinks its possible but i doubt that the EAs would be happy about competing against each other for the commission

jdivision · 31-05-2007 3:45pm

Yep it does happen but as far as I know both agents on occasion will want to be paid the commission. In other cases, the one that gets the seller gets the agent through the door gets the commission. Might be more effective to advertise - are you on myhome, daft, propertynews? Is your property in the front of the agents window. Have you put a classified ad into a newspaper likely to be read by the target market for your property etc etc If your apt's a two-bed consider putting your brochure in through the letter box of one-bed units.

jubi lee · 31-05-2007 3:54pm

yeah it's on my home, daft, was in the herald, the independent, the sunday independent, have it up in work, is in EA's window, also in buy & sell..

funny thing is the EA i have had something funny in the contract(which i haven't signed yet.) it basically says something along the lines of, 'any sale of this property will be deemed to have come from this office' - so i'm taking that to mean that i can't get another agent as even if i do i have to pay them both 1% or whatever.

antoinolachtnai · 31-05-2007 4:02pm

That term is probably a restrictive practice if it serves to prevent you entering a relationship with anothe agent (and as such is illegal). You can change if you want.

The new guy may not be able to do any better though.

It might be worth getting a friend to ring up and do some 'mystery shopping' to make sure the sale of your property is being handled as excellently as we have come to expect.

If the guy is handling things properly, I wouldn't like to drop him just because he hasn't had a bite after a few weeks.

It does happen that estate agents 'hold' properties back for whatever reason. Obviously this should not happen.

jdivision · 31-05-2007 4:05pm

I think that clause is inserted in case the agent brought a buyer to see the property and you then reached a side agreement with that buyer that resulted in you firing the agent in order to avoid paying the fee even though the agent had found a buyer.

Zambia · 31-05-2007 4:47pm

jdivision wrote:

I think that clause is inserted in case the agent brought a buyer to see the property and you then reached a side agreement with that buyer that resulted in you firing the agent in order to avoid paying the fee even though the agent had found a buyer.

This is why it is there all right

Unfortunatly I dont think its the EA's fault , but thats already covered in another thread.

information · 31-05-2007 4:54pm

jubi lee wrote:

hi
i'm looking to sell my Apt. i am in a bit of a hurry as i have put a deposit down on a new house and it will be ready in 4 weeks. contracts are already with my solicitor for the new house.

Try and put a clause in the contract that states the sale is subject to you selling your own property, that way it will save you loosing the deposit you pay when you sign contracts.

Best way to get a sale is to drop price below others in the area

jubi lee · 31-05-2007 8:17pm

yeah good points. price is already competitive so not sure i could drop it much more.
i had passed a number of sale signs in the area for similar properties which are all sold or sale agreed for a rival EA so was just wondering whether i picked the right one!

also my EA has about triple the amount of similar properties for sale than the other EA which is great, but bad for me as i feel they may not be concentrating on selling mine as the had the other properties on their books longer.

Victor · 31-05-2007 9:48pm

You could ask you bank for bridging finance, although you would be really putting yourself out there financially in a falling market.

You could just withdraw and offer it with the other agent at a later stage. By your behaviour (dealing with the current estate agent) a court might make parts of the unsigned contract enforceable.

mel123 · 01-06-2007 12:05pm

I recently sold my apartment (i am in dublin). I had to take a massive drop in the price to sell the bloody thing. Its a very large 3 bed, even if i do say so myself its modernly decorated and really is of showhouse standard, has parking, alarm, loads of public transport around and shops a 5 min walk around the corner etc etc. I had NO viewings for about 3 months, it was an absolute joke. The i massively dropped the price, hoping that i would get a few in the door and a few interested to bid against each other, and bring the price slyly up that way!! No chance. In the end i settled for a price which i wasnt happy with, but i was not taking the risk of being left with it for another 6 months, and with the way the market is I was afraid I might not even get what I was just offered.
My advice, do what I did, drop the price in the hope that it will entice people to at least come and view it, and hope for the best!!!

Edited to say, when i read in the papers that house prices in Dublin have dropped by like €2,000 euro I have to laugh, if only that was true for me.

jubi lee · 01-06-2007 1:29pm

mine is a 2 bed 2 bath.(within 25 mins of city centre by train) the other similar properties are on for 299 -300k .i have mine 10k under that, which is at the price that you would get a 2 bed 1 bath for. if i drop it any more i just won't have anything left to furnish the new house i'm moving to.

as for the bridging loan, can you do this if you haven't got a date that the bridging loan will finish on? i.e. if i take a bridging loan out in 4 weeks in order to get into my new place and my old place doesn't sell for god knows how long, would they even give it to me in the first place?

Zambia · 01-06-2007 2:21pm

mel123 wrote:

I recently sold my apartment (i am in dublin). I had to take a massive drop in the price to sell the bloody thing. Its a very large 3 bed, even if i do say so myself its modernly decorated and really is of showhouse standard, has parking, alarm, loads of public transport around and shops a 5 min walk around the corner etc etc. I had NO viewings for about 3 months, it was an absolute joke. The i massively dropped the price, hoping that i would get a few in the door and a few interested to bid against each other, and bring the price slyly up that way!! No chance. In the end i settled for a price which i wasnt happy with, but i was not taking the risk of being left with it for another 6 months, and with the way the market is I was afraid I might not even get what I was just offered.
My advice, do what I did, drop the price in the hope that it will entice people to at least come and view it, and hope for the best!!!

Edited to say, when i read in the papers that house prices in Dublin have dropped by like €2,000 euro I have to laugh, if only that was true for me.

Ouch ... hope it gets signed soon

can you have 2 estate agents?

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