Today we had a seller pull out of selling. By email. A few days before it was due to exchange. The buyer was extremely upset. Obviously. We had to give her the bad news that the property she had set her heart on, spent solicitors costs on, was no longer going to be hers.
If you ever wondered why Estate Agents fees are as they are, this is one of the main reasons. Believe it or not, alot of work and hours go into selling a property, as well as printing costs, postage, phone bills etc. If we charged every seller for going on the market regardless of whether they went through with it or not, the fees would reduce dramatically.
But I am sure it is not us you will feel sorry for and understandably so. The buyer, as many do, planned for the future in that property, probably had already bought furniture, accessories etc. We will do everything we can to find her something else, hopefully something even better, but I cannot help thinking that rather than Home Information Packs, couldn’t the government have come up with something to stop this kind of thing happening??
06/03/2008 at 10:59 am
I completely agree. Estate Agents spend thousands upon thousands of pounds each and every year on abortive sales, 99.9% of them are not the Estate Agents fault, put this together with the FREE valuations lots of clients use us for, whether they are getting divorced, buying a friend or relative out, re-mortgaging etc this also means hours out of the office, petrol and paperwork!
There should be a punishment for all abortive sales along the lines of the Scottish system, once contracts have been issued, survey carried out (and all ok with the property) searches applied for, then a financial penalty will apply if either side withdraw from the transaction. This would mean agents get paid for all the marketing, advertising and time, Solicitors for there time and the party who is not at fault at least gets reimbursed for their financial outlay.
Agents would then be able to reduce commissions, so the only losers in all this would be the clients who mess people about and change their minds…….NOW THAT sounds good to me!
11/03/2008 at 07:27 pm
Perhaps we should all charge an up-front fee refundable on completion?