approaching a seller directly? how to deal with it?

[gemmiegoatlegs]

our house is currently on the market with a local agent. Today we had a note through the door saying the sender was looking for a property in our area and a number to call...

now am i being dense? why not approach through the estate agent? all we can think is that they are hopin to knock some money off the asking price cos we won't have to pay the agents fees.

there is a mobile number but no name. i have no idea how to handle the phone call, cos obv i do want to sell the house and feel we should try every avenue but i can't understand the motive for approaching someone directly like this.

anyone help?

you'd still have to pay agent's fees whether introduced by them or not so ask them to go through the agent

well i am actually dumping my agent as soon as the contract is up (next week). so then i could be approached directly, right?

the note was handwritten so doesn't lead me to believe they have targeted all the houses in the street

hmm be careful. Do you have a board up so they know you are up for sale ? I suspect you are right but you may still be liable for EA fees even if they don't make the introduction, check your contract carefully. Also I'd be wary of just a mobile number , you might find them hard to track down again in future should you go ahead and they mess you about. What if just a guy turns up to view when you are alone, would you feel vulnerable or perhaps they are casing the area ? Personally I'd refer them to your agents to be on the safer side.

well jules, i suspect i may be desperate!

i think i will ring but ask them to go through agent. By "casing the area" do you mean to rob us?!

Yes I do . You can't be too careful tbh. btw you may have a break clause which may mean they can claim fees when not acting for you within a certain period.

you need to read your contract if you signed something there is a strong chance that they will take an agency fee for a number of months after your contract ends .. just be careful

We bought our house privately - it was on the market with 2 different estate agents but we discovered that we knew the owner via a friend of a friend and asked f of f to give them our number. It saved the sellers their estate agent fees - saved us nothing..but may have helped them stick to us as buyers when things started dragging on.

We also had people knocking on our door asking to view our old house when it was on the market (no board outside but it was on rightmove.com as 'coming soon'). As it was, we sold it to the first viewer (who came via the estate agent), but we did accept people's numbers in case the sale fell through. I am guessing that most people were trying anything in order to get to see a house as soon as possible as the houses in that area were selling so fast. Also, as a buyer, I've been in the position where an estate agent has refused to give me details of a house (within budget in right area etc) because we had put our house on the market with their rival...he said that if we moved our sale to their agency we could view the other house..so I would be tempted to try to view directly if I wanted to move to a particular street.

jules, you wouldn't have to do your own conveyancing if you sold privately - you would instruct a solicitor in exactly the same way as normal, whether you had an estate agent or not.

Agree about all the concerns others have raised though. It does sound a bit weird tbh.

ah, I see. I will admit to being a solicitor though...