mplaczek

Hmmm, don't know what to think about this one... thought I would run it by you lot...

I have a flat on the market. After 6 weeks there had been a good amount of interest in the flat and quite a lot of viewings...
However the estate agents suggested that I knock a little off the price to get interest from a different bracket of buyers. They suggested a £15K drop which I thought was quite a lot.
My wife and I talked... we want to sell the flat quickly so we agreed that it sounded like a sensible move.
A week later and we have an offer. 20K less than the new asking price! Ouch! I thought.
Anyhow, Had a phone call from the estate agents a day later to say they are legally obliged to let me know the offer is from someone at their estate agents.
It is probably nothing, but it kind of worries me. They knew we wanted a quick sale which put them in a very good position to haggle a good deal for themselves... I don't like it... what are the words... conflict of interest...

What do you think ?? Am I being paranoid??

Patt@firstime

True, sounds very suspicious to me

OllyK

I have seen on the odd advert where and interest has been declared, i.e. the person selling also works for the estate agent that is doing the selling. But I'm not sure how much of an issue there is the other way round, at the end of the day, you don't have to say Yes, and they have declared the interest.

Have you had any other agents in recently to give their opinion on value? I don't know what the flat is on the market for, but £35K seems a pretty hefty drop to me, unless it was rediciously over priced to start with. Are other places near you on the market you can use for comparison?

Huw Jorgan

The agent does have a legal obligation to inform you that a member of staff has offered on your property. Did you have any other appraisals on the property before you put it on the market, if so how much variation was there between the figures given and the figure being offered? When we have staff members trying to buy properties we are selling we always suggest to the vendor, if they haven't already had another appraisal, to get one carried out before they accept the offer. It does seem to be a big reduction, but it depends on how realistic the asking price was in the first place.

andrewdelvard

35 K seems a hell of a drop. What was it listed at? £300K? Just trying to work out the percentage...

mplaczek

Wow! thanks for all the very speedy replies


About a year ago it was on the market with an estate agent that had overpriced it.
Since then I gave them the boot and have the flat revalued. All the estate agents valued it about the same price 255-260K.

It was priced at 255,000 with the estate agents we went with.

They suggested a drop to 240,000
and then made an offer of 220,000.

Jap2Scrap

"Sounds" really, really iffy doesn't it and I don't blame you for being paranoid. I'd reject the 20k less offer and see if they come in a bit higher. If in the end you're happy with the final selling price it doesn't really matter who's buying it and it might be a simpler transaction through this party.

I'd approach with caution if I were you though, which it seems you are, and hold firm for a price that seems fair.

OllyK

So you went with the agent with the lowest valuation, and within 6 weeks they are suggesting you take a 13% hit? Either the housing market is in freefall or you are being shafted.

stevem2k

sounds like a nice staff discount scheme

Patt@firstime

Maybe there using there loyalty card

EiW

Possible theory....

I dropped mine by about 10k (230k to 220k) and it sold almost instantly. Why? You need to think how people buy houses now - they use Internet sites like Rightmove. These things search property by price within bands, 200-225k, 226-250k, 250k-300k for example.

This means that if you price at 230k in the above bands, you will be a small place in the 226-250k zone and so will look like poor value. You will also be attracting the bottom end of one band rather than the aspirational people in the band below.

Price your property at 220k and you suddenly are marketing your place amongst 'lesser' properties.

Perhaps your estate agency recognises this and is doing it for this reason. It is merely their lack of explanation that makes them look like dodgy.

Alternative theory - yeah, they're crooks! But a reduced price normally means reduced commission so it's not always in their interest to cut prices.

David Lock

Perhaps they would waive their fee if one of their own buys it?

mart360

seen this before..

two houses we were interested in..

one was bought by the estate agent we were talking too at the time.. he sold it 12 months on for a vb profit.... (and got it cheap)

the other we were dissuaded from was near my parents house we went to the bank and we were told the property had subsidence, and we wouldnt get a mortgage on it...

when it was sold and we saw who had bought it....it was the nice lady from the bank who told us we wouldnt get a mortgage... and again it was sold within 12 months for a huge markup... funny how the houses on both sides and the other half of the semi involved didnt have subsidence or any other house in the road??

trust em... nope..


M

Diesel

Sounds very suspect to me mate.

Your decision however is all about if you feel the house is worth that little after taking into account other similar properties asking prices minus say, 8%. You should expect to have to drop it a bit in the current climate, but if you have the slightest feeling you are being shafted just refuse the offer. After all if you worked in an estate agency and had the pick pf the bunch you would be mad to pay full whack as opposed to sniffing out a bargain...

If you decide to accept it say you expect to pay only a few quid towards their costs.

D

SD

Not in a position to offer any professional advice, but I'd take some comfort for the fact that on the face of it they're following the letter of the law and declaring that they work there. Now that's been established I'd treat it like any other buyer; At the end of the day is it a fair price to you? What about similar properties in the area? Ask for valuations from other agents to try and ascertain it's true value.

Hope it works out for you.

Simon

CooperS

I'd probably change estate agents, sounds fishy to me..