Could this be a ruse to get us to sign with a particular EA?

[JulieAnderton]

We've had four estate agent valuations on our ground floor maisonette:

EA1 - £190-200k; wants 1.5% commission
EA2 - £220k; wants 1.25% commission
EA3 - £220k; wants 1% commission
EA4 - £200-210K; wants 1.25% commission

We're not quite ready to put it on the market as there are a few cosmetic things we want to do first and we mentioned this to all four EAs.

This week we've had several phone calls from EA1 saying that a buy-to-let investor is extremely interested in our maisonette. We've just played it cool, saying that we had other valuations to consider and we're not ready to put it on the market just yet. We were a bit suspicious as to whether the buy-to-let investor actually exists and it is a ruse to get us to sign up with EA1. However during the most recent conversation the EA had with my DH he let it slip that the investor has already bought a particular maisonette in our road. We have spoken to this investor a few times, so know who he is. He got the maisonette he bought at a stupidly low price about 18 months ago (about £70-80k below what others were on for at that time - he said it was because it was a complete wreck and the lease was very short).

Anyway, we're now in two minds what to do. On the one hand if this investor is serious, we've got a cash-buyer lined up with no hassle of doing viewings etc. But, I bet he'll want to drive a hard bargain with us over price. And once he's secured a viewing, that'll be us signed up with EA1. It kind of smacks as being all rather convenient for the investor and the EA. But it obviously puts us in a very good negotiating position with EA1 as we certainly wouldn't pay the 1.5% he asked for. Another but - if we do go with the investor and get, say, £200k for the maisonette I'll always wonder if we could have got more from the open market.

I think I'm inclined to go with a different EA and put it on the market at £215-220k; if the investor is serious he'll still find out that the maisonette is for sale and he can make us an offer.

What would you do?

what you say at the end!

buyers can go through any estate agent you choose.

Be very wary of this, I agree. The BTL investor and ea could well be doing each other 'favours' as you say. We recently put dh's house on the market and a BTL investor was 'desperate' to be first viewer - to the extent of inconveniencing the tenant and viewing before any details were available. Offered asking price on the spot - then pulled out one week later when it transpired they'd also offered on another property and decided they wanted that one more. Basically, it was a way to buy themselves time.

Result was the initial flurry of interest was lost as other viewings had to be cancelled, and most never saw it again when we had to remarket the following week. Finally sold the house a couple months later for 4.5k under the original price.

Our initial excitement of having a cash-buyer lined up which means we can start looking for our next house has rather waned over the last 24 hours as we have thought about all the possible implications.

We need to remember that we are in control and we don't need to rush into anything, especially as there are 3 other estate agents all keen to secure our business.

Can you deal directly with the investor i.e. not appoint any EA? That would save you a few thousand in commission.
You would need to put time limits on and ask for a non-refundable deposit, to cover yourself.

Hmm, that did cross our mind, but we had an experience of an aborted private sale several years ago. We were trying the buy the flat that we were renting and currently living in, so it should have been very straightforward, but dealing directly with the vendor (our landlady) became a nightmare and it made me realise that EA's do act as good intermediaries between solicitors and can help to move things along.