Foxtons - your experience of them selling your house?

[SmiledWithTheRisingSun]

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

House a couple doors down was listed with Foxton at a laughable price. After 9 months it went on with another agent, and then a third. Eventually sold after two years for 2/3 of the original asking, which is what I or Zoopla would have quoted in the first place.

They're shit. So lazy and unethical. They gave my number to prospectivr buyer (without my permission) for him to ring me and try and negotiate a lower sale price! He begged me to lower, saying he and his fiancee had asked family to contribute and even with using all savings and maxing out credit cards could only offer £x. I told him to bugger off. He the said he and fiancee were off on skiing holiday and would contact me on return to see if I was more amenable. I called agent to bollock and he said didn't think I would mind and could vouch for potential buyer because a good friend!

I wouldn't brave recommending any EA ever and so please don't think I am a Foxtons fan! But to add to the background... Foxtons do have VAST numbers of mailing list subscribers for people overseas. So if the market and your property might fit a Russian or Chinese investor (for example) then it is possible to sell through Foxtons without ever needing a viewing. I used to act as a solicitor for a lot of overseas buyers who would just decide to buy something on a Foxtons circular without much negotiation on price. So sometimes that higher valuation does work.
My personal experience of selling in South London was through KFH who we weren't that happy with either

They're infamous for over-valuing, though maybe this is changing now, at least in London.
I've recently seen a property that's in dire need of total renovation, described by Foxtons as 'superb' with a 'smart kitchen'!!

How the relationship goes can be down to how you get on with the branch manager. Some at Foxtons are good, others not so. The same with other agencies. (Very much so with KFH).

Foxtons negotiators tend to be ‘hungry’. Do not let them bully you. Perhaps decide in advance that you will respond ‘let me think about that’ and then get back in and hour or so. If you feel you are being bullied, speak to the branch manager. As a long term landlord I think they have me down as an awkward sort. I seem to get the kid glove treatment, which suits me. You are paying them. They work for you, not themselves.

They are not always good at screening potential clients so more viewings but more time wasting. But my experience is that they are more efficient with follow up, things like weekly updates, than other agents.

I agree with pp. They are good at getting international corporates, some of whom will pay over the odds. That why I use them. But then I am mainly letting in central London.

Loathe them. They came to value our house (for complicated reasons I wanted a high valuation on paper) and gave a basically quite stupid price. They then said they would market it on the basis of being easy to extend. It's not - I have structural surveys to prove it - so I immediately told him that wouldn't be appropriate, and he said it was up to the buyer to find that out and it was only more expensive (like ten times more expensive) rather than impossible. So basically he'd exposing us to high risk of the sale collapsing during conveyancing but didn't give a shit.