Selling house privately when still on with agent?

[mummydarlingsausage]

Can anyone help answer this? We are using an estate agent to try sell our house. However, a friend of a friend has looked looked at our property without going through the agent - i showed them around myself.
They are coming to look again so my question is if they really are interested and made an offer do we have to go through the agents? If we came off the market with the agents how long would they be able to claim a fee?

Read the small print of your agreement. We were in a similar situation which would have been fine but for the fact that the agent could claim the fee if they had someone 'ready and willing to buy' (or something).

Mysteriously, a buyer appeared at almost the very same moment that our private one did... We ended up paying the fee (although I was prepared to risk it as I think they were bluffing).

If you take the house off the market, it might only be a couple of weeks in which they can claim (and not at all if they don't have a buyer).

Yes, some agreements commit you to paying a fee if the house sells while they are marketing it regardless of whether they introduced the buyer. There is nothing to stop you negotiating with the friend of the friend and, if you think s/he is serious, giving the agent notice and exchanging once it has come off the market. A pain if s/he pulls out though.

I would always challenge the "ready and willing" buyer in an agreement before signing it - it's pretty meaningless, what if they have a buyer ready and willing to buy the house at 75% discount? What if the ready and willing buyer finds a house they like better. Only ever sign anything that gives an agent commission for actual introduction and make sure there is a very short notice period. Cross out any terms you don't like in an estate agents contract and say that you want to renegotiate - 99% of them will agree, especially on that sort of thing, they know they are chancing it.