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Property/DIY

Can we leave EA?!

7 replies

Buddy198 · 06/07/2016 11:59

We had someone approach us privately with a letter through our door wanting to buy our house at the asking price, we e-mailed them rather than phone them and asked them to contact our EA for a viewing, kept to all the proper channels. At the viewing they asked us to take the house off the market, next day we get a letter through the door saying they were approached by our EA asking them to view another property which is in direct competition with ours, same type of house, same price and 2 roads away. The guy said they were going to view this other house but still wanted to buy ours, and obviously we were thinking, wtf, why go and view it then?!

We heard nothing for a week, phoned the EA again keeping to the protocol of always going through them, left a couple of messages but nobody returned our calls, finally got through to someone and asked what was happening with our "buyers", to be told they'd left a voicemail for them a few days earlier but hadn't heard back, we phoned again 2 days later and were told the same thing again.

That was on Friday, then yesterday we found out through a mutual friend of the people selling the other property up the road, that the people who said they wanted to buy our house and asked us to take it off the market, were now buying the other house, basically they approached us, the EA has poached them for another property and don't have the decency to tell us what's going on. I just want to end our contract with them now, they've been terrible anyway up til now, and after what's just happened feel we can't trust them at all. Is there any way we could end our contract with them without having to pay a fee for the marketing we've had so far, or should we just ride out the rest of our contract for the next 2 months not trusting them and getting awful service and treatment, what would you do??

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wowfudge · 06/07/2016 13:15

Honestly - I think you are overreacting. You say these 'buyers' asked you to take the property off the market, but you don't say they had actually made you an offer. Sounds as though they wanted to negotiate on price and were thinking that if you have no EA fees to pay they could strike a deal with you. Presumably your house is not being marketed secretly? I think the buyers sounds dodgy. Difficult for the EA when they have two houses on their books which someone expresses an interest in.

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whois · 06/07/2016 13:49

Huh this sounds quite strange.

The EA are not soley actiiong for you - they will get potential buyers through the door of any properties they think they will be interested in.

If you had done a private sale you'd still have to pay the EA fees - usually have that in their contract. the 'potential buyer' sounds a bit dodge.

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Obeliskherder · 07/07/2016 09:43

Did they offer to pay asking price in the original letter before they'd viewed your house?

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AvonCallingBarksdale · 07/07/2016 13:27

I don't think they've done anything wrong really. The "buyers" are entitled to view another house and they're entitled to decide they'd rather buy that than yours. That could have happened at any time. We carried on looking once we'd put an offer in on somewhere as the would-be vendors were quite flakey - found somewhere else and pulled out of original. It's annoying but the whole process is up and down right up to exchange anyway.

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Buddy198 · 08/07/2016 14:35

They saw our house on Rightmove and put a letter through our door saying they wanted to buy it and would like a viewing, they had never been in contact with the EA befor. We replied to the email address given and did the correct thing asking them to go via our agent if you'd like to view the house, they then view the house and say before leaving they are going to put an offer in via the EA. We then find out that even though we were the ones who put them in touch with the agent, the agent then suggests they view a different house on their books before they decide to put put a formal offer on ours. They apparently said no at first but the EA persuaded them to take a look just to have something else to compare it to before making an offer, why would they do that when they were getting a sale on our house, and it is exactly the same price as the other house so not like they'd be getting a lot more commission from that one?! Discouraging someone who says they want to buy our house and persuading them to view a different property, especially when they had never been in touch with the agent before just seems a bit unfair on us, if the EA is meant to be working for us and with us to sell our house? Would anyone be ok with their agent redirecting a buyer towards a different property instead of yours after saying they would put an offer in the next day? I know that people can change their minds and carry on viewing houses after putting an offer in and can pull out right up til exchanging, but you don't expect someone who contacted you privately wanting to buy your house then being persuaded by your EA to view another house instead, and the agents obviously have no idea that I happen to know all this, a mutual friend of the people told me. The agents went quiet then they told us that they can't get in touch with them, so have lied to us completely as well as actively lost us a buyer, surely that's not what we're paying them commission for?!

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wowfudge · 08/07/2016 15:16

I still think you are overreacting. The buyers are at worst dodgy (trying to circumvent the agents) and at best clueless (saying they would make an offer before they had completed the viewings they had lined up). They wouldn't have known your house was for sale without the EA's advertising it for you.

The EAs want to be sure they have a buyer who is committed and that the sale will go through so it is in the vendors interest that the buyers have seen and, hopefully, discounted the competition.

A third party has told you what happened who happens to know you and these buyers - those buyers may well have spun them a line to show themselves in the best possible light as they are perhaps a tad embarrassed they said they would make an offer but have actually offered on a different house which happens to be marketed by the same EA. They then discover you and they have a mutual friend so what do they say?

Seriously - you don't want buyers who behave like that. If you still think the EA is to blame them change agents, but read the contract you have signed with them and make sure you give the correct notice.

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Obeliskherder · 08/07/2016 16:16

Yeah someone might be lying to you, but I don't think you should take every word your buyers say as gospel.

They were unlikely to have gone all the way to completion with yours if there's one up the road that they preferred. Better to lose them now before you've spent money on solicitors and invested emotionally (further) in the sale.

Yes the EA may be shady cowboys - it's been known. The other sellers may be paying them more commission. We, ahem, incentivise our EA well. But ultimately I think you're being a tad naive to think your potential buyers would spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on yours without even noticing there's another for sale down the road.

The fact that the competition is coming off the market is a good thing. The next buyer is now more likely to buy yours.

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