Selling privately

[Menarefrommarsitwouldseem]

Okay so this is a little bit of an aibu too.

I was due to go on the market last week and due to issues with right move it didn't go live.

While waiting for it to go live a family friend heard from my sister that we were selling.
Called and asked if they could come and view so we said of course. Still wasn't live at this point.
They like it. They're just going over finances and apparently are going to call us at the end of the week.

While all this has been happening we have gone live ( and no interest at all, not even a phone call) would I be out of order to pull from the market and let the estate agents down.

Also if I decide to go the private route. I understand I will just so the legwork with the solicitors etc but is it worth taking some kind of reservation fee as I'm still super aware that I am coming off for someone who isn't proceedable yet. I do know them well but at the same time don't to leave myself wide open.

My estate agent contract states I can withdraw at any time with no fee if there hasn't been a sale.

You can pull out of your contract with the estate agent at any time. They haven't introduced any buyer to you.

Reservation fee? What’s that for? Will you hold on to it if the buyer backs out? Otherwise what’s the point? If the buyers can’t proceed I’d tell them that until they are it stays on the open market.
But don’t worry about ‘letting the agents down’. You aren’t.

What does your contract with the EA say? If you’ve agreed sole selling rights you may find you owe them the fee despite finding your own buyer.

And no to the reservation fee.

You need to look carefully at your contract. We've had a similar situation where the buyer came straight to us but had seen the 'for sale' sign. There is clause where the EA claims commission for 'indirect introduction' so if you sell they might claim their marketing counts as an introduction.

I know the interest came via a family introduction but the EA might try and claim the listing could have been seen. You'd have to prove it wasn't. Do you have a text or email proving the conversation started before the listing went live?