Selling house - auctioneer average

seanin4711

Hi All,

Firstly MODS apologies if in incorrect section!

looking to move from semi d in an estate to potentially a dormer with 1/3 1.2 acre nearer to kids school/country living etc.

Started the process of selling house last October so got in contact with auctioneer.they were very enthusiastic in starting the wheels in motion - grand , getting signeage up outside house and on line etc.
Viewings are taking place every other weekend which is fine.

They offer free valuation and a "no sale no fee "policy - fine.

We are looking for min 185K (bought in 2004 for 210k) before we think about selling.
Auctioneer has it for sale at an asking price of 150K.
Since Oct 17 there must be almost half a dozen viewings if not more in that time and once we heard how the sale is going & had to email to find any info out.
Strangely he has gotten offers of 150K for the house but remains confident that he will get the price we are looking for.

Never met the autioneer in person only over phone and has one in his employ to do all the phone calls and overseeing the viewings etc.

The one time I called him i stated that we had reservations about selling etc and now may not be a good time for us etc(had to cancel some viewings as family member terminally ill,since passed).

He was not happy about the viewings canceled & i didn't feel it necessary to explain out personal issues to a stranger.

I outlined that there seems to be a gap in what he was saying to me as in now is a good time to sell with brexit uncertainty etc Vs ESRI report stating that house prices were due to rise by 15-20% over next two years.
Took this as an insult and I was talking rubbish-didn't know what i was talking about etc. I got angry/felt insulted and hung up on him.

5mins later got a text to say that i would be receiving an invoice for their services.

From the outset their talk on the phone was"no sale ,no fee" & "we can change our mind/cancel sale at any time".

Called him back and stated that there was personal issues going on as to why the viewings couldn't go ahead(didn't expand further) & he gave me the whole "now is a great time to sell" again ,so we said fine have your viewings. Never even a hint of an apology from him.

No contracts are signed our end

at this stage we are happy to put on an extension and stay put.

Just wondering what would you do in this situation?

thanks and regards

J

dudara

Moved to Accommodation & Property

dudara

Wesser

How come you have never met him.face to face? Who let him in the door if the house when he came to view it?
I think that there is no trust here and that if he is not respecting your personal wishes then I would get rid of him.

spaceHopper

You bought 4 years ago and since then prices have been rising, why are you selling for 30% less? That would put me off, any buyer will check the PPR to see what house in the are are selling for and worry that you are discounting the house buy 60K because of some problem with it.

Again if you have it on the market with an EA and pull it off only to put it back on with another it will look strange.

Get three EA's to quote you for selling, don't expect them to work for free, have everything in writing.

seanin4711

spaceHopper wrote: »

You bought 4 years ago and since then prices have been rising, why are you selling for 30% less? That would put me off, any buyer will check the PPR to see what house in the are are selling for and worry that you are discounting the house buy 60K because of some problem with it.

Again if you have it on the market with an EA and pull it off only to put it back on with another it will look strange.

Get three EA's to quote you for selling, don't expect them to work for free, have everything in writing.

bought almost 14 years ago(edited now) in Neg equity since.
I dont expect them to work for free but I take them at their word when they state "no sale no fee" & "you can cancel the sale anytime" etc etc
so which is it?
cancel anytime or you will be getting an invoice in the mail???
false advertising?

seanin4711

Wesser wrote: »

How come you have never met him.face to face? Who let him in the door if the house when he came to view it?
I think that there is no trust here and that if he is not respecting your personal wishes then I would get rid of him.

Never met the autioneer in person only over phone and has one in his employ to do all the phone calls and overseeing the viewings etc.

He has a rep doing his bidding who we are sealing with but he is the boss(again never met in person)

hawkelady

I wouldn't pay him anything if he hasn't sold it. If they advertise a no sale no fee then they should stick to it. I presume you already paid them for advertising fees etc? Play hardball .. he sounds like a clown. Texting a client 5 mins after being on the phone to get a jab in is very unprofessional and I would get another estate agent in and tell your current one to sling his hook

seanin4711

hawkelady wrote: »

I wouldn't pay him anything if he hasn't sold it. If they advertise a no sale no fee then they should stick to it. I presume you already paid them for advertising fees etc? Play hardball .. he sounds like a clown. Texting a client 5 mins after being on the phone to get a jab in is very unprofessional and I would get another estate agent in and tell your current one to sling his hook

as above
nothing paid

Homer

Estate agents generally have a worse reputation than car sales people. Unless he has something in writing signed by yourself just ignore him. There are plenty of alternatives to the traditional overpriced estate agents in 2018 so just use google and move on.

seanin4711

Homer wrote: »

Estate agents generally have a worse reputation than car sales people. Unless he has something in writing signed by yourself just ignore him. There are plenty of alternatives to the traditional overpriced estate agents in 2018 so just use google and move on.

have a contract where it states that he has sole rights to sell house for 12months.
nothing signed by us as yet.

hawkelady

If you've signed nothing then just ignore him completely. It's only a contract if you've signed it.

jsd1004

If you need control of the sale just advertise it yourself on daft.ie and save yourself a couple of grand. Auctioneers do little to nothing. Ask them how they plan to market your property before you engage them and if its just a daft/myhome/our website ad..then just do it yourself. No one goes to an auctioneers office/site anymore. Do you? Everything is online.

newo

We had a similar situation in 2006. EA was useless. I got a friend to ring asking for a viewing at one point and he never even returned her call.

We were not happy with the price he was getting as felt we could get more. Took house off market. Put it on DAFT a couple of weeks later and sold it ourselves for 29k more than he was offering. A couple of months later got an email from him asking did we have any luck selling. It was a friendly type e-mail. I replied and said yes we were delighted to have sold. Fast forward a couple of days invoice arrives for advertising costs etc. We ignored it. Another came we also ignored it. End of.

I am sure there are those who will say we should have paid him for his time and costs but IMO he almost cost us almost 30k by being incompetent/lazy or whatever and didn't do the job as advertised or promised.

noel100

We have our house for sale no sale no fee
1% commission on sale
If we pull the house off the market then we pay there costs 300+vat
We had 4 viewings before Christmas no offer yet but hopefully have house sold by spring.

davo10

seanin4711 wrote: »

have a contract where it states that he has sole rights to sell house for 12months.
nothing signed by us as yet.

Contracts do not have to be signed, they can be verbal. You have a hard copy of the EAs terms and conditions and you instructed him to market your house.

It is usual to have a no sale/no fee arrangement, but there is usually a charge for signage and advertising (newspaper/daft) and to be fair, regardless of your opinion of EAs, they should are due their fee for signage/ad.

Though you should not have to explain in any great detail why you are not now selling, this "stranger" has been working for you and on your behalf. Manners and decency would go a long way to making him appreciate why you are pulling out now, perhaps if you had told him why, he would not have been so annoyed with you.

seanin4711

davo10 wrote: »

Contracts do not have to be signed, they can be verbal. You have a hard copy of the EAs terms and conditions and you instructed him to market your house.

It is usual to have a no sale/no fee arrangement, but there is usually a charge for signage and advertising (newspaper/daft) and to be fair, regardless of your opinion of EAs, they should are due their fee for signage/ad.

Though you should not have to explain in any great detail why you are not now selling, this "stranger" has been working for you and on your behalf. Manners and decency would go a long way to making him appreciate why you are pulling out now, perhaps if you had told him why, he would not have been so annoyed with you.

On my behalf or on his percentage?
I had manners all the way through but when he insulted me then he crossed the line.

"no sale no fee/cancel anytime without charge" in my book means exactly what it states & I wasn't aware i had to read between the lines.

I think you are insinuating that we have been at each others throats which is not the case from original post.

noel100

What you can do is put the price at the value you want. That is your choice so you won't have Tyre kickers. I've taken this approach I didn't want low ball offers selling below market value. The estate agent wanted us to sell 45k below value to generate a lot of footfall . If you absolutely don't want to sell increase the price in excess of true value won't have to pay his fees but the house will be for sale forever.

davo10

seanin4711 wrote: »

On my behalf or on his percentage?
I had manners all the way through but when he insulted me then he crossed the line.

"no sale no fee/cancel anytime without charge" in my book means exactly what it states & I wasn't aware i had to read between the lines.

I think you are insinuating that we have been at each others throats which is not the case from original post.

Both, he is working for you to sell your house, and for himself for a fee.

EA fees for property sales are usually based on a percentage to the sale price, 1-1.5% is normal, but this excludes the cost of advertising. So the percentage fee is obviously not due, but the cost of advertising on daft/myhome and signage would be. You should read your contract, this sets out the t&cs, you don't have to have signed it for an agreement to be binding, the EA gave this to you and you instructed him to proceed.

So, read the contract, this sets out fees, if there is nothing about advertising fees/signage or if this is included in the sale fees when property sold, then you don't owe anything.

In relation to the bad feelings between you, your post reads like you just rang one day, after he had multiple showings, and said you were withdrawing it from the market, without explanation. You said you don't feel you should have to give a reason to "a stranger". Personally I think if you had explained the reason behind your decision, there would have been less ill wil.

davo10

noel100 wrote: »

What you can do is put the price at the value you want. That is your choice so you won't have Tyre kickers. I've taken this approach I didn't want low ball offers selling below market value. The estate agent wanted us to sell 45k below value to generate a lot of footfall . If you absolutely don't want to sell increase the price in excess of true value won't have to pay his fees but the house will be for sale forever.

Would you be at all concerned that people's interest might be piqued at the lower price and this could lead to potential buyers bidding against each other? Think you might be missing a trick with this approach.

noel100

Well we are living in the house and I couldn't hack the trail of potential buyers that weren't going to come near the price.
It is hassle enough to present and vacate the house for the estate agent viewing without having a load of underbidders arriving throwing in low ball offers.