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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To sell house with Foxtons (which I would normally avoid like the plague)?

65 replies

Inneedoftea · 08/10/2013 14:24

Ok, so DH and I have been thinking about selling house for a year or so, but have had other issues going on that have prevented this so far.

Since having our house valued last autumn, prices where we live have increased considerably. So I had another valuation two months back and one today with Foxtons, who are opening a new branch near us. The Foxtons agent did a typical estate agent speech etc and then valued us at £150 000 MORE than the other agents. No house has sold on the street for anywhere near that price at all. Our house is nice, we have worked on it since being here 5 or so years. New kitchen/bathroom - everything fresh. Lovely garden, Victorian charm, original features, lovely street. Buyers can really move right in. But it is such a huge difference.

So basically I'm asking what other people have experienced with Foxtons. Do they really overprice? Will they 'suggest' we reduce later. Obviously if we get a higher price our purchasing limit will increase too but although I don't want to be greedy, we are only human and want to get the best price we can.

OP posts:
CogitoErgoSometimes · 08/10/2013 14:27

How quickly do you want to sell? If they're valuing way above the market rate it might give you a fuzzy glow to see the price-tag but you won't get many buyers interested.

LifeofPo · 08/10/2013 14:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Pobblewhohasnotoes · 08/10/2013 14:30

I hate Foxtons, however our house was luckily with a rubbish estate agents, which meant it didn't sell quickly and we were able to buy it.

Another estate agent told us if our house had been with Foxtons it would have sold straight away,

Original poster
Inneedoftea · 08/10/2013 14:30

We aren't in a massive hurry to sell. My gut feeling is not to use them. I guess I just wanted other people's thought to back me up!

OP posts:
litdog · 08/10/2013 14:30

I can't believe you are even asking the question! That's how they get business - they overprice at the start to get people feeling greedy, then tell them to be a bit more realistic a few months down the line when it hasn't sold and buyers are wary of it because it's been on the market for so long.

I wouldn't touch them with a barge-pole, to sell OR buy through. We just bought somewhere and I looked at places with every other agent but did not even look at what Foxtons had to offer as I couldn't face dealing with them.

Original poster
Inneedoftea · 08/10/2013 14:32

Pobble, it does seem they sell things quickly, but who honestly knows at what actual price!

OP posts:
Original poster
Inneedoftea · 08/10/2013 14:34

litdog yes I never looked at them when we have bought. As have heard such horror stories.

OP posts:
litdog · 08/10/2013 14:37

Their agents are under massive pressure from above. I feel a bit sorry for them (almost).

Can you ask around and see who neighbours recommend? I know in my part of London Strutt & Parker are very good, as are Bushells, who are a small local chain.

Mintyy · 08/10/2013 14:37

As a buyer I would avoid Foxton's houses as far as I possibly could, because everyone knows they wildly overprice.

Buyers are not going to be so silly as to unthinkingly pay £150,000 over the odds for a house ... would you?

Original poster
Inneedoftea · 08/10/2013 14:40

To be fair the other agents both think it could go over asking price, but I doubt by £150 000!

Think you have all confirmed what I thought.

OP posts:
ScarerAndFuck · 08/10/2013 14:43

They are massively above what every other agent has valued your house at and nothing else in the area is selling anywhere near that price.

You might want the best price you can get but I really doubt that price will be the one Foxtons have quoted you.

Plus, when if you do have to reduce your price to be in line with what everything else is on the market for, how high will Foxtons fee still be? Is it a fixed fee? They might have quoted it as a % but that doesn't mean it will come down if you accept less then they first started to market the house for

If it's 2% of the asking price at the full value, and it stays the same regardless of whatever you actually sell for, what % is that in fees really?

Say you are on for £400,000. A 2% fee is £8,000.

Then eventually you have to reduce to £250,000 to be in line with everything else in your area and finally accept an offer at £200,000 because people still aren't getting the asking price.

Unfortunately you still might have to have to pay the £8,000 rather than £4,000 because that is fixed and has been from the start even if your asking price was unrealistic. Less money for you doesn't necessarily mean you pay less to them.

I'm not saying they are doing that, but it's best to consider it before you go ahead so you really understand what you will be paying them.

Rushyswife · 08/10/2013 14:45

We sold with foxtons and broke the ceiling price in our road! They valued ours £55,000 more than other agents. We did our sums and worked out the figure we would have to sell with them for to justify their extortionate commission,and told them they would need to get us more or we would not accept offers. We did drop the price by £25.000 after 6 weeks, but then the offers came flying in and we went to a bidding war! Ended up selling for £22,000 more than the next highest valuation. So although they will almost certainly have overvalued your house, and their commission is expensive I think they are worth it!

Also they did 55 viewings in 9 weeks on our property! I think they early every penny!

HTH

fromparistoberlin · 08/10/2013 14:47

avoid . evil people

i work on a work estate and even from a distance I can spot the cunts

just use a nice, well recommended local estate agents

Original poster
Inneedoftea · 08/10/2013 14:50

The thing is scarerandfuck, they are actually offering 0% as they are opening a new office. But I still don't want to use them if they're taking the piss.

OP posts:
tabbytolst · 08/10/2013 14:51

You can put your house on the market with another agent for the price Foxtons suggested if you like. tbh I don't think any one agency is more likely to sell as long as it's online. It really depends what service they'll give you - will they do ALL the viewings, will they keep you properly in touch etc. As a seller, I would use Foxtons, but as a buyer I would hate them with a passion.

londonrach · 08/10/2013 14:54

As a buyer i have not registered with foxtons and i havent registered with them. If you want them phoning you none stop go for it. We had the mistake 4 years ago by registering and had to change our phone number to stop them. Go onto allagents.com and do a search re feedback.

Floggingmolly · 08/10/2013 14:55

What they tell you it's worth is not ever necessarily what people will pay, you are keeping that in mind aren't you? In fact if it's stupidly over priced in relation to similar properties nearby, it will actually deter viewers, who will assume it's you who's taking the piss.

OcadoSubstitutedMyHummus · 08/10/2013 14:56

I would ask them to explain how they came up with that price and for comparators.

sparechange · 08/10/2013 15:01

OP You've answered your own question... they are opening a new office
They don't want to actually sell your house, they want to have the photo in the window and on their website to make it look like they are active in the area and draw in business, so that they can then go out to other sellers and say 'we have XX buyers registered with us' so they can in turn sign up more buyers.
And I bet actual money that if you did go ahead with them and put your house on at their vastly-inflated asking price, their sales team who hassle everyone on the phones to set up viewings would be giving potential buyers a line about you having unrealistic expectations hence the high asking price, but there is a deal to be done etc etc.

They will also be coming up with the line that they became famous for in 2007 about not thinking about what the house is worth now, but thinking about what it will be worth in a years time, and that making it worth paying a little bit over the odds for now.
All of that hard sell means a lot of people have a blanket 'no using Foxtons' policy when buying, so you might actually find you don't get as wide a pool of potential buyers as with another agency.

I used KFH recently, and got them down to 1% commission because another agent had just opened a branch nearby and was offering 0%...

clothesrack · 08/10/2013 15:13

I bought a house through them. In the course of the sale, the estate agent offered to sell me for 100 pounds a survey done several month previously by buyers who had pulled out at the last minute.

Next time I spoke to the owner he asked me if I'd found the survey useful. i said I hadn't wanted to spent the money - but thanks. The seller was perplexed: he'd told the estate agent to GIVE IT TO ME (which he then did himself, for free).

PatPig · 08/10/2013 15:27

foxtons are cunts.

Original poster
Inneedoftea · 08/10/2013 16:09

Patpig I like you directness Grin

OP posts:
Musicaltheatremum · 08/10/2013 16:47

I just bought a flat with Foxtons. Managed to knock £10k off the asking price. I do think they were very "top show" though and once they had my offer accepted they weren't as easy to get hold of.

tigerpug · 08/10/2013 17:12

This is exactly what happened to us - I was determined not to use them because of their reputation, but DH talked me into it, as did another friend who had sold her house for full asking. We listed at their recommended price (approx £150k higher than the other 2 valuations we had). We had loads of viewings but 2 months later we hadnt had an offer, so we decided to give them 2 weeks and then switch to another agent and drop the price.

And guess what.... a few days later we got an offer almost at asking price, and the sale went through!

Maybe we were lucky BUT I dont think we would have found that buyer through any other agent, and we wouldnt have made anywhere near as much profit. Foxtons arent great for many reasons, and my opinion of them isnt much higher even now, but for us it worked out.

JamieandtheMagicTorch · 08/10/2013 17:16

They over-valued our neighbour's house by a hefty sum - trying to appeal to a demographic that's not quite the same as the one our area appeals to. It's all very flattering but they didn't sell the house.

I hate their stupid offices with pretendy bars in as well.