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Original poster

Agent advice not to market property

30 replies

HauntedHen · 06/03/2025 14:02

We have been looking to move to a for a while. We hadn’t marketed ours as what we want is really specific and we didn’t want to sell whilst there was nothing on the market for us.

We found something we like and made an offer which was accepted, but they wanted us to be sold, which is fair enough.

Our house was ready to market and we used the same agent. Agent sent a couple of people round at the weekend, one of whom made an offer a little lower that what we were hoping for. We accepted, based on the fact they were already sold to first time buyers, so should be a nice, easy chain.

The first time buyers have now pulled out. Our house has never officially gone on the market. Still not on rightmove etc. The agent is reluctant to market our house and is advising us to wait for our buyers to sell again, rather than market ourselves.

I feel a bit like we’re putting all our eggs in one basket and the agent isn’t giving us a fair chance of selling quickly. DH thinks we should give our buyers some time, I think we should go on rightmove and see what other potential buyers are out there.

Help!

OP posts:
Autumn1990 · 06/03/2025 14:03

If you want to sell I would go on rightmove

BooomShakeTheRoom · 06/03/2025 14:04

Definitely put it on the market. They may take ages to sell again, and if they don’t, they can still make an offer again once they have an offer.

I can’t understand why they’d advise you to wait, other than it’s in their interest.

BeforeWinter · 06/03/2025 14:06

Did you ask your EA why on earth he is prepared to put in the work to market and sell your property? Vanishingly few houses sell 'off market' like this.

Twiglets1 · 06/03/2025 14:10

Get the house on Rightmove.

It's your best chance of a quick sale.

Original poster
HauntedHen · 06/03/2025 14:10

Thanks all. I was beginning to think I was going mad to want to actually try and sell it.

@BeforeWinter the agent is saying that he is doing the same for us on the property we want by asking the sellers to wait until we are sold. The difference is that house has been on rightmove for several weeks.

OP posts:
LadyNairne · 06/03/2025 14:13

That’s a whole lot of trust in just one single estate agent’s ability to manage the actions of three households motivated by huge sums of money and need to buy a specific house!

Definitely market your house if you want to sell it. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Original poster
HauntedHen · 06/03/2025 14:25

@LadyNairne I have very little trust in the agent! He’s definitely only in it for his commission!

OP posts:
SatinHeart · 06/03/2025 14:33

Is your agent trying to pocket the Rightmove listing costs whilst keeping your fee to them the same?

Original poster
HauntedHen · 06/03/2025 14:36

SatinHeart · 06/03/2025 14:33

Is your agent trying to pocket the Rightmove listing costs whilst keeping your fee to them the same?

I expect so! Any idea how much it costs to list on rightmove?

OP posts:
TokyoSushi · 06/03/2025 14:38

Very weird advice, get it on Rightmove!

Hoppinggreen · 06/03/2025 14:41

HauntedHen · 06/03/2025 14:25

@LadyNairne I have very little trust in the agent! He’s definitely only in it for his commission!

As opposed to what? A warm and fuzzy feeling?
Agents (like the rest of us) work for money and while they can and should also provide a decent service they will always have their eyes on making more
Many Agents are on a low basic salary and high commission so while I appreciate thats not your problem OP its good that you have realised they may not be working entirely in your interest.
Do what you need to do to sell your house, including getting it on Rightmove.__

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 06/03/2025 14:46

Is he related to or friends with the people who have made the offer?

This happened to some friends, he was basically trying to reserve their house for his BIL…

Squeakpopcorn · 06/03/2025 14:47

Why did you accept a lower offer for property which hadn’t even been on rightmove? I wonder if he personally knows the buyers. I woulf change agent.

TwentyKittens · 06/03/2025 14:50

My first thought is that he's friends with or related to the buyers.

Original poster
HauntedHen · 06/03/2025 14:51

I don’t think the agent knows our buyers, he is, however, the agent for all 3 properties.

We accepted the low offer because the house we want wanted us to be in a position to proceed with our purchase.

At the time it seemed like a good idea to take the offer (not hugely low, but probably 5k less than we were hoping for) to be in a position to get on with it and move quickly without all the stress of viewings etc. That’s worked out well?!

OP posts:
Tupster · 06/03/2025 14:59

Kneejerk is that I agree with getting on Rightmove because you want all avenues open to get that chain moving again.
However, there is the risk that the agent might be doing the same to the vendors you are buying off in the sense that they are trying to reserve the property you want to buy for you even though you are now non-proceedable. If you go back on Rightmove, you basically invite the one you want to also go back on Rightmove and maybe that's not the best situation for you?

MimiSunshine · 06/03/2025 15:01

Nah. Your buyers can be your preferred choice and you can be happy to sell yo
them but in the mean time you need to look after your own interests which means marketing your property.

so id be insistent that it goes online before the end of tomorrow ready for the weekend and he gets actively contacting and lining up possible buyers for viewings.

if he can’t do that then go with another agent. He works for you, so make him work.

Original poster
HauntedHen · 06/03/2025 15:05

Tupster · 06/03/2025 14:59

Kneejerk is that I agree with getting on Rightmove because you want all avenues open to get that chain moving again.
However, there is the risk that the agent might be doing the same to the vendors you are buying off in the sense that they are trying to reserve the property you want to buy for you even though you are now non-proceedable. If you go back on Rightmove, you basically invite the one you want to also go back on Rightmove and maybe that's not the best situation for you?

The one we want is still on rightmove. Not even showing as under offer.

OP posts:
madaffodil · 06/03/2025 15:07

The agent appears to be acting in their own interests, not yours.

LlamaDrama20 · 06/03/2025 15:11

The EA is limiting the amount of work he has to do and trying to control the chain to 'his' own properties.

Rightmove listing will mean checking prospective buyers, conducting viewings, making phone calls etc. Your EA is just being a lazy f*cker!

Get it on Rightmove!

Original poster
HauntedHen · 06/03/2025 15:53

Right, I’ve sent a strongly worded email to the agent to get it on this afternoon. Would have called him but I wanted to put it in writing.

OP posts:
MimiSunshine · 07/03/2025 17:00

HauntedHen · 06/03/2025 15:53

Right, I’ve sent a strongly worded email to the agent to get it on this afternoon. Would have called him but I wanted to put it in writing.

How did it go? Are you now on Rightmove?

the fact the property you want is still being marketed means you need to more than ever be pushing g your own agenda

LittleGreenDuck · 07/03/2025 17:34

Almost the exact same happened to us, only with a longer chain. Everyone in the chain put their properties back on the market to give themselves the best chance of securing their onward purchase, though I felt awful about doing it to our buyers, who were really lovely and desperate to move before their baby arrived. As it happened, the people at the bottom sold first, to another FTB, so the whole chain reconnected. Was incredibly stressful for a while!

You have to act in your own interests here and get yourselves proceedable again.

Best of luck.

Original poster
HauntedHen · 07/03/2025 18:33

We are now on rightmove! Our ‘buyers’ have 2 viewings tomorrow with first time buyers, so fingers crossed they sell or we get some other interest.

OP posts: