Listed for sale each week in the UK are around 30,000 properties, and most of them are on a sole agency basis. Vendors have no option but to use one single agent and property firms love this. However much of a pain in the backside they may turn out to be once the contract is signed, you're inextricably bound to them - and them along - and cannot go anywhere else.
This agreement would usually last for 12 weeks minimum. Many of the big corporate firms like Countrywide Assured PLC, owners of Bairstow Eves, Abbotts, John D Wood, Mann & Co and others will try and coerce you into signing up with them for as long as 16 weeks, and you'll find that the contract you have just signed is pretty watertight. No other agent is allowed to introduce a purchaser during the time of that sole agency - or even for the 14 days afterwards which are often incorporated within that contract as an exit period, adding insult to injury.
But a sole agency isn't all doom and gloom: in exchange for signing four months of your life away to someone full of promises that you've only met once, you get yourself a 'discounted' selling fee. In those allegedly 'good' old days, estate agency fees were approximately 3% of the sale price, but as the property market has grown, prices have risen and almost every high street across the land is squeezed full of property shops, fees have come down a bit in reality. And we have that 'sole agency discount' to thank for that. In simple terms, you'd pay an average of 4000 to an agent who will take a few photographs. This is as opposed to 8000, on the basis that the 4000 'reduction' is your reward for putting up with potential inaction and crass annoyance for the next four months... and if you instruct another agent during that time, you will be penalised in the form of a double fee, enforceable by court order.
If this is making sole agency sound less than attractive, that's because it's not attractive in the least: it is restrictive, anti-competitive... and permits estate agents to treat you in whatever way they fancy without fear of losing your business. Can you imagine a restaurant ignoring every single attempt you make to order, and after they finally get round to asking you what you'd like to eat they serve it to you badly cooked - without any trace of apology - while making sure you are contractually obliged to stay there for several days so you couldn't eat anywhere else. And then presenting you with a bill which despite its much-vaunted 'discount' still makes you wince? That, in a nutshell, my friends, is sole agency.
It may come as a surprise that the Office of Fair Trading hasn't investigated the practice of sole agency and banned it, since it is so heavily stacked in the estate agent's favour. But that doesn't mean you can't refuse to go along with it. eMoov does not operate on a sole agency basis or have any other tie-ins. And even though high street agencies are quite prepared to fine you thousands of pounds for using an additional or alternative agent at the same time, we rather welcome the competition. It's all about survival of the fittest, isn't it?
So when it comes to selling your home, instruct eMoov - and then a conventional estate agent (if you can find one that won't bind you with a sole agency agreement). With the coverage that we provide, you've got a much better chance of selling via eMoov than through a high street firm that only advertises sparsely on a web site here and there and is closed half the time anyway. And, of course you'll be saving yourself a packet. No catch there.
This agreement would usually last for 12 weeks minimum. Many of the big corporate firms like Countrywide Assured PLC, owners of Bairstow Eves, Abbotts, John D Wood, Mann & Co and others will try and coerce you into signing up with them for as long as 16 weeks, and you'll find that the contract you have just signed is pretty watertight. No other agent is allowed to introduce a purchaser during the time of that sole agency - or even for the 14 days afterwards which are often incorporated within that contract as an exit period, adding insult to injury.
But a sole agency isn't all doom and gloom: in exchange for signing four months of your life away to someone full of promises that you've only met once, you get yourself a 'discounted' selling fee. In those allegedly 'good' old days, estate agency fees were approximately 3% of the sale price, but as the property market has grown, prices have risen and almost every high street across the land is squeezed full of property shops, fees have come down a bit in reality. And we have that 'sole agency discount' to thank for that. In simple terms, you'd pay an average of 4000 to an agent who will take a few photographs. This is as opposed to 8000, on the basis that the 4000 'reduction' is your reward for putting up with potential inaction and crass annoyance for the next four months... and if you instruct another agent during that time, you will be penalised in the form of a double fee, enforceable by court order.
If this is making sole agency sound less than attractive, that's because it's not attractive in the least: it is restrictive, anti-competitive... and permits estate agents to treat you in whatever way they fancy without fear of losing your business. Can you imagine a restaurant ignoring every single attempt you make to order, and after they finally get round to asking you what you'd like to eat they serve it to you badly cooked - without any trace of apology - while making sure you are contractually obliged to stay there for several days so you couldn't eat anywhere else. And then presenting you with a bill which despite its much-vaunted 'discount' still makes you wince? That, in a nutshell, my friends, is sole agency.
It may come as a surprise that the Office of Fair Trading hasn't investigated the practice of sole agency and banned it, since it is so heavily stacked in the estate agent's favour. But that doesn't mean you can't refuse to go along with it. eMoov does not operate on a sole agency basis or have any other tie-ins. And even though high street agencies are quite prepared to fine you thousands of pounds for using an additional or alternative agent at the same time, we rather welcome the competition. It's all about survival of the fittest, isn't it?
So when it comes to selling your home, instruct eMoov - and then a conventional estate agent (if you can find one that won't bind you with a sole agency agreement). With the coverage that we provide, you've got a much better chance of selling via eMoov than through a high street firm that only advertises sparsely on a web site here and there and is closed half the time anyway. And, of course you'll be saving yourself a packet. No catch there.
About the Author:
Home buyers don't bother to walk into estate agency offices these days. 90% of them search for property with internet estate agents. eMoov cover the whole of the UK but save money by not having hundreds of houses which you otherwise end up paying for in high estate agents fees. eMoov are online estate agents. They are a step up from private house sales and ten times cheaper than the High Street. Why pay more?
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