Foxtons - your experience of them selling your house?

[SmiledWithTheRisingSun]

Has anyone sold with them?
Are they worth the extra money?

They're AWFUL.

Foxtons overvalued our house by 25% just to push up their cut, and would not negotiate on their fee percentage so we didn't instruct them. They spend too much money on offices which try to look like coffee shops and those branded minis, rather than trying to sell houses.

As a buyer, I would actively avoid buying through them as they have such a poor reputation. I would be really conflicted if I saw a perfect property but it meant I had to deal with Foxtons.
You are negotiating the commission right? I managed to get it halved from what I was originally quoted (not by Foxtons obviously). Keep going back again and again playing estate agents off against each other as they are desperate for your instruction.

Why are they awful NoCure? I'm not arguing with you, I don't personally find them very endearing - just trying to decide if they do a better job of selling - hence the higher prices...?

Hi OP. My aunt went on with them last year in Balham (SW London) and could not have been more critical. They over valued, argued with her when she insisted on a lower price and were hard to contact once they had the listing. Very few viewings. She had luckily negotiated a short contract & swapped to James Pendelton who got her more than asking (although I suspect this may have been because she priced to sell due to flat market). I think their reputation is the problem and in a buyers market their MO doesn't work. As first time buyers (SW London also) we tried to avoid viewing anything listed with them or KFH as we assumed the sellers would have unrealistic price aspirations.

Over valuing is their watch word. Avoid.

When they valued our house I asked why they thought it was worth a lot more than my adjoining neighbour's house (it was a semi) who had sold 6 months previously. They didn't even know what my neighbour had sold for or the original asking price, shocking lack of research.

Yes DomesticSlattern thats what we would usually do... but there must be a reason they can charge more and still run a successful business no? And for the sake of 1% on your commission, it might be better to go with someone who will actually sell your place at a higher price?

I suppose I'm trying to think in a business like way - rather than an emotional "i hate Foxtons they are so annoying" type way... (as I am prone to do)

But do they make higher valuations because they will get the price for you?

That's very interesting thanks Kamma!

Is there ANYONE on MS who has had a more positive experience?

(MN even!)

Hate chain estate agents

Get local independent one - who care about local reputation

Take advice from Eva's then put your house on the market for a price you want with agents you want

Eva's?

No, you're making the mistake that all vendors do. That the bonus of a higher price is worth a higher fee.

The Foxtons business model might work in a sellers' market. It doesn't work in today's market. Having bought via Foxtons, they don't actually 'get the price' for you - they just pump you up and then the buyer actually pays what your flat is worth and you accept it because that's what it's worth.

Plus their estate agents are total wankers

We’ve just sold with them. They got just over 94% of asking price. I think they did over value it but also achieved more than the other two agents valued it at. Few bumps along the way but they presented house well and got quite a few viewings. We had an offer we were prepared to accept within about 4 weeks of going on the market. They also did a lot of work after the offer. I hadn’t appreciated how important this was and in the future would always make sure I’d ask agents how they’d handle that period and key questions. They almost played a project management role across the various parties. As with lots of businesses though, a lot depends on the people in that branch.

The founder of Foxton’s, Jon Hunt, obviously did very well out of them. Have you seen his pad, Heveningham Hall?

This is a good few years ago now, but we saw a flat through Foxtons when we were looking for our first home. The EA showed us the place and then asked us immediately if we liked it or not. We told him very politely that we'd rather discuss it between ourselves first. He responded very aggressively that if that was our attitude then he'd call us once at 9am the following morning and if we hadn't made our minds up by then then he wouldn't be engaging with us further. We were . He never called! Just as well that we didn't like the flat!

I let through them and hate them because they are agressively efficient. Then I try someone else and hate them because they are totally inefficient.

I have still to find the right balance, though having just sold a property through an agent who did not phone once to ask how things were progressing, and who failed to pass a message to the purchasers over f&f leading to serious and unnecessary bad blood, I may well opt for Foxtons next time.

I arranged to view 6 properties back to back with Foxtons earlier this year. The agent turned up 20 minutes late, did not apologise, and could only show me one of the 6, with no reasons given and again no apologies. Having found an alternative property I contacted agents to ask them to remove me from their lists. Foxtons was the only agent to ignore this, and as well as emails from various different branches I have also received several phone calls since. I got quite heated with the last.

I also heard that a friend of a friend came back from travelling abroad to find that Foxton’s had let his flat out to a family. He turned up home with all his luggage and let himself in and found someone living there. Bonkers.

So we have sort of accidentally used Foxtons twice now, having sworn that we would never touch them.

When we bought our first house, I found the perfect property on RightMove but was hugely put off when I saw it was marketed by Foxtons. DH rightly told me to get over myself. We viewed, loved, and ultimately bought the house, and I'm confident that we didn't pay over the odds for it. The whole experience was fine as a buyer.

When we were leaving London we got half a dozen agents to value. Most came in £25k either side of £450k. The awful Foxtons one gave me a stupid spiel, valued it at £500k, and then sat back to watch my reaction. Needless to say we didn't use them. We signed with another London agency who were, frankly, poor; it is worth saying that Foxtons do not have the monopoly on being a bit shit.

We couldn't sell the house in time to relocate as we had to be in our new city for jobs within a month or two, so we let out the house with a local, family-run small lettings and management agency. All tickety-boo for a couple of years, but the owners then decided to retire and sold the lettings side of their company to Foxtons. Foxtons honoured the favourable management rate that we had been paying and their admin was all pretty professional from our point of view as landlords. They were keen to value our property and encourage us to consider a rent rise but we refused. We later realised that they do make a lot of money from selling hugely inflated add-on services to landlords - smoke alarm installation, cleaning services, inventories etc - at the start and end of tenancies.

Our tenants then gave notice a few months later and we decided to sell. At this point, we were living two hundred miles away and it wasn’t practical to get back to London to field loads of valuations - so we went with Foxtons. The higher rate was worth it in our particular situation as the lettings and sales teams were pretty good at communicating and they took care of most things under my (admittedly assertive) remote direction. It is worth noting, however, that they were quite pushy with their high valuation of £500k+. We were adamant that we wanted to market at £475k, which turned out to be about right. The agent who handled the sale did, to be fair, really earn his fee through a very tricky transaction.

They do not negotiate on commission, by the way. It appears to be a point of both principle and pride for them. People really love to hate them but having dealt with other London agents they are really no better or worse than many of the rest.

So, I made an enquiry on their website the offer say to see what they thought our place might be worth and they called me up today. The irritatingly high speed at which the EA spoke (So fast I had to ask him to repeat himself s few times) and pushy manner he exhibited has DEFINITELY made me think twice!

We tried to let our flat through them. They delayed and delayed before getting photos done and listing the property. Then, despite telling them we didn't want short lets, they only ever found short lets. After close to two months we changed to a small, local estate agent - who took less than 24 hours to find a long-term let for us.