Instructing a second agent

[Awkwarddough]

Do I need to give notice to my current estate agents to instruct a second one?

We initially had to stay with our agents for 12 weeks which was up ages ago due to COVID. My contract only says that I need to give notice if I want to stop selling with them and doesn’t say anything about moving to multiple agencies other than the fee will be higher.

OP I would not recommend using multiple agents. If you are dissatisfied with your current agent, terminate their contract and instruct an agent with a better grip of the market.

Having multiple agents instantly makes them less motivated to sell your property and actually can be harmful to you as they might talk down the purchase price to prospective buyers to get the property off their books.

I don't know your details but make sure the valuation is priced at a realistic level if instructing someone else. I'm not sure if this is the reason it hasn't sold already?

@Cranton thanks for your feedback. We are well priced and have sold once but the buyer pulled out due to health issues. That was about 4 weeks ago and we’ve only had one viewing since.

The agents that we want to move to have pretty much every listing in the area at the moment and there’s been a few we’ve wanted to offer on that have sold before we’ve had chance so the properties they’re marketing seem to be selling.

Would we be better to go multiple agency for our notice period or just stick with the current agency and then swap at the end of our notice period and take the hit if it sells in the meantime?

I disagree - multiple agents can be a massive advantage in some situations as they know they are fighting for the sale so in order to not lose the possible commission they will try harder to get the sale in quickly before the other agent does. Where they are in 12 week contracts they can sit and relax and knows they've got 3 months to try and sell.
Someone i know is a property developer and swears blind having multiple agents is the way to make them most hungry. Remember they also make even more commission from your sale then so it's a huge incentive.

You can negotiate different types of fees if you go multi agency - a 50/50 split, 60/40 or winner takes all.

@Isit2021yetplease that’s what I thought they would do, I figured they would work harder as they were competing with each other.

@bilbodog I didn’t realise this, I thought it was winner takes all regardless.

Do I go to the new agency first or let the current agent know first?

As a buyer, multiple agents always flags up to me that there is a problem with the property and that it is hard to sell.

@thriftyhen I agree, if I saw multiple agents I would think the sellers wanted rid. However we want to move quickly because we’re due our second baby in Feb which we would be honest about to buyers. :)

I think you need to be careful if someone who first viewed via the original agent subsequently makes an offer through the second agent. The original agent may well claim they introduced the purchaser and will want a fee. Check the detail of the contract you signed and ask the second agent what would happen in this case....and get it in writing!