An Estate Agent sort of question .... what do you think?

[Boris+]

Imagine that you own a house, but that you have seen (and viewed) another one which sort of takes your fancy - so far, so good.

You then make the decision that in order to buy the new house you will sell your existing one; and you decide to use the same Estate Agent that is dealing with the one you want to buy.

So the chap comes around, does the measuring and photos, gives you a valuation - and then after you have signed the agency agreement he tells you that you 'are not allowed to be at home' when viewings of your home take place.

Put into the equation the fact that you do not work, so you are being told to get out of your own home whilst viewings are due to happen - and if people don't turn up, the estate agent chap is just going to sit there until the end of the scheduled appointment time.

Personally, I don't like it one bit, it just doesn't seem right. What do you think?

Em

[HK phooey]

Tell him to sod off. He's working for you, not the other way around.

[sunseeker16]

It seems unusual - though we haven't done a house move for a long time

Personally, I would rather view a house as just that, rather than somebody else's house and I think one can't help but get a skewed view by meeting the current owners.

Also, in selling, I think it is the eastate agent's job to show people round, not the current owners'

Let's hope you've got a good estate agent who gets you a good offer on the first or secong viewing - weeks or months of periods of being required to absent yourself would become a bit wearing

[CaroleF]

No way would I allow an estate agent to tell me I must be out of the house. Yes the agent can show the people around the house but I would be there. I would be very suspicious as to why he wanted me out of the house. Never heard of this happening.

Carole

[Boris+]

Morning Helen,

I feel pretty much that way also - this bloke is a bit of a dictator, and wants to put up a 'for sale' board in part of the garden where I just don't want it. He seems to have lost his grasp of the situation that it is our house, our home and we don't have to sell if we don' want to.

I can appreciate that people want to look around and not be influenced by the current owners - we don't want to have a coffee morning with the buyers, we don't have to speak to them; but I am now just having nightmares that people will come into our home with stiletto heels on my hard floors and kids with sticky fingers putting marks on the paintwork - and I haven't even started on worrying if anything is going to get nicked! I can see myself having 'putting away' sessions each time at this rate!

The other thing is that having shown us around the house we may wish to buy (which is currently empty - no furniture etc) he should have realised that we are a bit reserved and very private people in reality; and I just don't like the fact that he waited until after we had signed the document (which included bank card payment details for the administration fee) to merrily pull on his jack-boots and start behaving like a dictator.

Would I be happier simply forgetting the project and booking another cruise! Oooooooh don't tempt me!

Em

[GillD46]

We moved six moths ago, selling our previous home took quite a while, so we had several viewings. Sometimes the agents conducted the viewings, sometimes we did. If the agents did them and we were around, we sat in the garden or moved to a different room from the one they wereviewing at the time.

I would certainly NOT be told to be out! Neither would I have a For Sale board erected - anywhere!

[GillD46]

PS I wouldn't even give the agent a key. The only time we allowed them a key was when we were on holiday and they managed to set off the alarm and we had to sort it out - from Thailand!

[david63]

This surely is a contract issue.

Whilst I am no legal expert was the stipulation that you must not be in part of the contract that you signed? If it was then you cannot argue about - even if you did not read it. If it was not then there is a possibility of dereliction of duty as all relevant facts were not explained to you before you signed the contract. I would suggest contacting whatever governing body he belongs to.

[Kendhni]

That seems to be the way they show houses in America ... allows the agent to give more BS and arrange things as they see fit.
Their argument is that they know how to promote a house properly rather than the owner who simply says 'here is the kitchen, here is the living room, it is blue and has 4 walls' etc.

[Dancing Queen]

When we sold our last house we were both working so it made sense that the EA had a key, they always notified me when someone would be viewing, even if we were at home I preferred the agent to show people round, if I'm paying someone a huge amount of money to sell my property then my theory is they do something to earn it.

As for asking you not to be there ... well I too would tell them to sod off, the same with the for sale board, your house, your garden .... you decide

[Boris+]

Well firstly thanks to everyone for all the helpful posts. Now I don't feel that I am being a silly twit (well no more silly than normal), that my feelings do count, and that I am not being unreasonable.

There is no way that the EA will be given a key - I just couldn't go off on a cruise and hope that all was well if the keys were in the hands of someone I don't really know. The other thing is firstly the blasted alarm (which we always use, night and day), and secondly from an insurance point of view, if anything untoward happened and we were not in the property at the time, there could be issues with the insurance.

QED, bossy boots (no kippers, please note!) is going to be told straight tomorrow - he is not going to put a board where we don't want it, and that we are happy to move to a different part of the house (or garden in fine weather). If he wants our keys, he can blasted well buy the house!

Huge thanks to a lovely bunch of posters.

Em

[oldbluefox]

Tbh when we sold our house I was quite happy for the estate agent to show people around. Whenever we showed them around ourselves we came across some of the most obnoxious, self-opinionated characters going and I found it hard to bite my tongue. Comments such as 'Oh the garden's rather small' or 'Is there no en-suite?' or 'I'm not sure I will get my Mercedes up there' only went to annoy me. Don't these people read the estate agent's literature and if they are worried about parking their Mercedes either they should not be on the roads or they needed a smaller car? It took me all my time to be civil. I felt many of them were not one jot interested in buying but were just being nosey or needed something to spend an afternoon doing. Total time-wasters!!!

I was grateful when the estate agent did show them around but that was my option.

[emjay45]

Tbh when we sold our house I was quite happy for the estate agent to show people around. Whenever we showed them around ourselves we came across some of the most obnoxious, self-opinionated characters going and I found it hard to bite my tongue. Comments such as 'Oh the garden's rather small' or 'Is there no en-suite?' or 'I'm not sure I will get my Mercedes up there' only went to annoy me. Don't these people read the estate agent's literature and if they are worried about parking their Mercedes either they should not be on the roads or they needed a smaller car? It took me all my time to be civil. I felt many of them were not one jot interested in buying but were just being nosey or needed something to spend an afternoon doing. Total time-wasters!!!

I was grateful when the estate agent did show them around but that was my option.

That reminds me of the first house we sold. The estate agent then, and that was in the sixties insisted it would be better if he showed people around. He was probably right as we found some people really obnoxious. I'm pretty sure one couple came simply to use the bathroom. One chap who was buying the house for his daughter and her husband walked around sneering at everything even jumping up and down in the lounge and claiming the floor seemed unsafe. In the end my husband told him to leave and said that what he knew about houses you could put on the back of a postage stamp. So imagine our surprise when he put an offer in on the house. We sold to someone else

[Dark Knight]

we have had all this nonsense for the last few weeks
tell the estate agent to bugger off and there is no way you are allowing them free run of your home, whilst you are out.
you can let them do the viewings but be on hand to correct all the lies they will tell the prospective buyer
this is an Americanism that is becoming more common.
alternatively arrange an open house over a weekend a get every interested party round in one go and then sit back and wait.
we had 7 viewings one night, which is a p*ss take by any standard.
HK is correct they work for you and they do as you say and do not be bullied into giving in with lame promises of loads of viewings missed or it puts off prospective buyers

[gfwgfw]

Just out of interest

What is the out of pocket expenses in selling a residence circa £400,000, and buying at a similar price ?

[Dark Knight]

gfw

eyewatering !!!

if you take the full deal , you have:
estate agents fee which is a percentage usually or can be a fixed fee
stamp duty as a percentage of the house value
removal fees
legal fees
mortgage fees
our current move is running at about 10 grand

[GillD46]

It cost us £25,000 six months ago.! And that's without any mortgage.

[Boris+]

It's something like 1.5% to the EA, stamp duty, legal fees (including searches), and the removal company - and that's it, apart from ..... those dreaded plans I have in the darker regions of my mind for the new place!

We've already been online and managed to find the original plans and planning for this place, and we've also managed to obtain (online again) paperwork to do with the extension etc which was done several years ago. The bits about finding about stuff like flooding we've already done (yes we would get it done by the solicitors, but we also want 'our' version for comparison). If and when we get an offer on our current home, then I would go and have a sneaky peak and see if this other place currently has a mortgage on it, and if so how much - then we can think about what offer to make.

Meanwhile we've decided stuff like what changes we would like to make in three phases (within a month, within 2 months and within 3 months) - and the schedules and costings are already in ---- but first we want to have a nice proceedable offer on 'home'.

If we don't get this other place nil desperandum we have a cunning plan - and of course suitable distractions to keep my inner monster satisfied.

So, come the morning the EA is going to be told that we will not be absenting ourselves during viewings - but we still will 'hide' valuables and breakables.

Once again huge thanks for all the posts.

Em

[Stephen]

Tell him to sod off. He's working for you, not the other way around.

Couldn't have put it better myself.

Although I would have thought he should have made it clear to you the terms of their agency agreement before asking you to sign.

[Boris+]

Hi Stephen,

I agree wholeheartedly - I feel that as the introduction of these demands was clearly made after we had signed the agreement that it is singularly underhanded and sneaky; and that I just don't like.

Oh well, fingers crossed!

Em

[Stephen]

I may be wrong, but I would have thought there is a case for malpractice here which you could use to get out of the contract with this agent if you so desired. The only problem is proving it.

[Meg 50]

say, "Look here sunshine - do it my way or I find another agent"

[Boris+]

Hi Meg,

Yip, that's what we're going to say tomorrow.

We've had a look through our copy of the agreement, and there is absolutely no sign in that document of any stipulation that we have to leave the house in order for viewings to take place.

We've certainly never come across this before. We did have some situations where we were in one area and selling properties in another area - but we weren't living a those properties for sale, and we knew the EA and there was a high degree of trust.

It's just made me ask - why does this man want us out of the house? Is he going to be dishonest? I hope not.

Anyway, we'll get it sorted out tomorrow, and if we don't get the place we are after we'll just have to regroup and sort out another project.

Once again huge thanks for all the posts.

Em

[Dancing Queen]

Em, I wouldn't think this man is dishonest, he is obviously well known in your area otherwise you wouldn't have gone to him in the first place, it sounds to me as if he doesn't want any "interference" which is why he probably prefers to be there alone with any prospective buyers, you are happy to make yourself scarce but probably many aren't and he sees that as a hindrance, I don't think he is right, we had the EA show people round our last property when we were there and we stayed out of it completely as you are willing to do .... I think he probably needs a few lessons in "tact"

[david63]

Another way of looking at it is - if, at the end of the day, he sells "introduces" a buyer who is willing to pay a price that you are happy with - then does it really matter?