# Estate agent asks me to show my house as he's busy?



## AlastairSC (4 Feb 2010)

We have a house on sale with a well-known upmarket agent. Today he called my wife to say people are interested in viewing on Saturday but he's not free to do it - could she do it?  She can't so she texted me to ask if I could. 

I think the agent shouldn't have asked. My wife thinks that, as he did ask, we should do it.

Is it just me or is this not appropriate? Not to mention unprofessional? We're paying 2.5% for the agent to use his experience with the buyers. If we'd wanted to do it ourselves we wouldn't have engaged the agent. If neither he nor one of his colleagues is not free then the appointment should be rescheduled? 

Then I got to thinking that perhaps other agents do this too and others have been put in our position. I could understand this in the boom where houses sold themselves and agents were too busy. But now?

I'm just about to (I) complain or (II) offer to do it for €250 out of his commission. Talk about paying a dog and barking yourself!!

What should I do?


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## Ann1 (4 Feb 2010)

AlastairSC
I would show it myself. Its really about getting people to see the house and hopefully getting it sold. In the good old days owners usually showed their homes themselves. I remember guiding prospective buyers through my parents home (in my school uniform at the tender age of 17 years.) They bought the house the next day.


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## mf1 (4 Feb 2010)

With things the way they are...........

I'm of the mind to just say Jump? How high! 

It is just impossible  at the moment to get anything over the line and , as a (former) conveyancing solicitor ( before houses stopped selling ) I'd just show to anyone  who was interested. 

I found myself on a site visit recently ( I don't do site visits)  - but whatever it took was whatever it took to get the deal over the line. 

So, I'd be  a "just do it". 

mf


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## Marion (4 Feb 2010)

I also think that you should show the prospective buyer around your house.

But I have questions also regarding the fees.

If you show the house and you are able to "sell" it to the buyer:

Should the EA expect the "sale" fee? Or should they only expect to receive an "introduction" fee? 

Can we realistically expect this particular seller to pay the full EA's fees if the house is "sold" to this viewer by the home owner?

Marion


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## mercman (4 Feb 2010)

Tell the agent the you will show it but and in writing tomorrow that you would only be willing to pay half the fee for his introduction. End of story.


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## pudds (4 Feb 2010)

mercman said:


> Tell the agent the you will show it but and in writing tomorrow that you would only be willing to pay half the fee for his introduction. End of story.




Exactly but maybe half is too much to give him (only if a sale goes through to completion obviously)  maybe a 1/4 is more than deserved in these difficult times.


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## chlipps (4 Feb 2010)

Many of the auctioneers during the boom did not need sales techniques to sell properties... people bought them regardless of agent... was easy money for them at the time. Nowadays they must put in the effort to make sale go thru.. very surprised with his attitude... suggest you ring him and ask what reduction he is offering if you make the sale go thru


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## Arabella (4 Feb 2010)

I'm sure that most prospective buyers would rather do the walk alone. So all you've got to do is open the door. But a talk on the fees wouldn't go amiss. Although judging by your admitted "Location", all you've got to do is open the flap


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## onq (4 Feb 2010)

AlastairSC said:


> <snip>
> We're paying 2.5% for the agent to use his experience with the buyers. If we'd wanted to do it ourselves we wouldn't have engaged the agent.
> <snip>



I'm heartened to see an estate agent busy.
I'm astonished to see a 2.5% rate being charged for their services.

I'd be tempted to take the house off him, put it up on the buy and sell, sell it yourself and spend the few grand on a holiday or add it to your next purchase.

ONQ.


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## lion_bar (4 Feb 2010)

onq said:


> I'm heartened to see an estate agent busy.
> 
> ONQ.



Maybe the estate agent is busy with a personal issue.

The EA has "found" this perspective buyer for you, what you pay only becomes an issue if this buyer does buy your house.    

Most EA's just let the buyer in and answer most basic questions, you should be able to put in the effort and do a better job.  

If there are any issues with the house maybe get a friend to show the house so they can avoid answering any tough questions as the EA would do.


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## Knuttell (4 Feb 2010)

onq said:


> I'm heartened to see an estate agent busy.
> I'm astonished to see a 2.5% rate being charged for their services.
> 
> I'd be tempted to take the house off him, put it up on the buy and sell, sell it yourself and spend the few grand on a holiday or add it to your next purchase.
> ...



Agree 100% with above,EAs are not noted for either their intelligence or work ethic,this is my personal experience from years dealing with the breed (yeah there are exceptions yadayada) personally I would run this cheeky halfwit and engage another at a hell of a lot lower than 2.5% or try and sell it yourself its not that hard,you will probably do a better job yourself.


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## brigadear (4 Feb 2010)

Can we ask, which EA it was??


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## UFC (5 Feb 2010)

I'm stunned agencies are still charging 2.5% (which is what, around 6k for the average home?) simply to place an advert on daft.ie and show people around your house. Quite amazing really.

Considering how much money you are potentially giving them I think their request is completely unreasonable. Obviously you should show the house anyway but like the other people say you need to renegotiate the fee.


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## crabbybear (5 Feb 2010)

The reason for getting an EA is to have no contact with potential buyers and for them to sell the property. Do you want the potential buyer asking you a load of questions and haggling with you ?


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## Bronte (5 Feb 2010)

I would be pragmatic, you want the house sold, you have a viewer (rare as gold dust) I'd just do what the estate agent asked. 

I once had an estate agent who wasn't able to make an appointment ask me to show the prospective buyers around, which I did. It was in my interest to do so.

If you do show it, let the buyers time to view it on their own, I personally prefer to view a house without the owners, so you can go out in the garden or whatever, to let them talk among themselves. I've viewed a few properties in my time and I like estate agents who let me to myself. It's was great during the boom when they were so busy on the mobile phone you could wander on your own.


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## ontour (5 Feb 2010)

Bronte said:


> you have a viewer (rare as gold dust)



I thought that viewers had become plentiful but buyers were rare as gold dust.  If viewers are so rare, and therefore estate agents are not that busy, it is a very poor service from a mainstream estate agent who is charging you a very high rate of commission.

Potentially the estate agent already has experience of the prospective viewers and has assessed that there is little chance of them buying your property and so does not want to waste his/her time on them.  Ask your estate agent if he has more information on the prospective viewers and what the rate of commission will be if you sell the house to one of them.


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## Sherman (5 Feb 2010)

Cheeky git. What's next - your solicitor decides he's too busy and wants you to do the conveyance? Tell him to get lost.


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## MrMan (5 Feb 2010)

Knuttell said:


> Agree 100% with above,EAs are not noted for either their intelligence or work ethic,this is my personal experience from years dealing with the breed (yeah there are exceptions yadayada) personally I would run this cheeky halfwit and engage another at a hell of a lot lower than 2.5% or try and sell it yourself its not that hard,you will probably do a better job yourself.




But yet they are blamed in part for the property boom/bubble. Maybe the OP would be better off listening to reasonable responses rather than bitter potshots.


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## MrMan (5 Feb 2010)

There are two issues here. Firstly the EA should not ask for the owner to do his work even if he has a personal/family committment on that day. He should reschedule the appointment, but the viewer may have put the screws on him that this 'is the only day I can see it'. I would imagine that this was an absolute last gasp solution and it wasn't common in boom times either.
Second issue is that he has asked so it's in the OP's interest to go ahead and do the viewing. Look at your goal, you want to sell so do everything you can to achieve that. The fee is already very high, but that is up to the OP to renegotiate now.

If anything you may get some feedback that might open your eyes to what the general buying public think of your house and price.


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## mrblues (5 Feb 2010)

AlastairSC said:


> We're paying 2.5% for the agent to use his experience with the buyers.



2.5% is insane as a rate to be paying - have you signed anything to agree to this? If you have then I would not go ahead with the viewing as you will be paying them for YOUR work should it sell to these viewers. 
Other option would be as suggested in a previous post to get them to agree in writing that if it does sell to these buyers then you will agree to pay them a flat fee of your choice or .5% of the sale price as they haven't done their job.


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## Knuttell (8 Sep 2010)

MrMan said:


> But yet they are blamed in part for the property boom/bubble. Maybe the OP would be better off listening to reasonable responses rather than bitter potshots.


 
No idea why you bothered replying,do you moderate the comments here?

I replied to the OP query,giving my opinion and experience,you may not agree with it,indeed you are free to add your own,however pleses refrain from replying to my posts if you have nothing constructive to add.


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## steph1 (8 Sep 2010)

I would show the house myself to the viewer.  Show them around and then leave them to have a wander around on their own.  And sure you are in the best position to answer any questions or queries they may have. Maybe you should consider taking it away from the EA and advertise it for sale yourself.  And as another poster suggested save the money and treat yourself.  Hope you get a sale.


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## AlastairSC (26 Nov 2010)

Update:

No sale yet (surprise). To answer an earlier query the agent is Savills. We've been asked a second time to open the house for a buyer and took some of the advice mentioned here to do a personal, (and hopefully personable) job. I think the problem is that, despite the swish website and image they have too few reps down our way - just the one guy, in fact. Haven't yet said anything to the agent about this for the reasons other posters adduce - a potential buyer is too scarce. Will write to them about introduction rate instead of full fee, though - that's good advice. 

It seems all the viewers to date have come through MyHome.ie (one or two from England) so if we take it away from any agent and try to advertise ourselves do we cut off this option? (We did have it on daft.ie before looking around for an agent  - no responses)


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## Black Sheep (28 Nov 2010)

A couple of months ago a friend asked me to come along with him to a viewing on a Saturday. He had made the appointment during the week and was to meet the EA at the said house at 3p.m. 
At 3.15 EA turned up but he was from another Agency and standing in for the original who could not make it to the appointment. He simply opened the front door to let us and sat down to read his paper. Pity he hadn't read the property pages (about this house) and may have been able to answer some basic questions


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## Woodie (13 May 2011)

It is actually not so unusual to ask an owner to show a house, at east I have experienced that in the UK. In fact sold the house more quickly this way. You want to sell, you know the house best, you are it's best sales person. Don't chatter on too much and give the people space to wander as soon as you have pointed out the great stuff about the home and area. 
You could come to an arrangement with the EA to deduct something if the viewer turns into a sale.


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## beffers (13 May 2011)

AlastairSC said:


> Update:I think the problem is that, despite the swish website and image they have too few reps down our way - just the one guy, in fact.



That is no excuse, not for the insanely high fee that they are charging you. If they were charging you a bargain bin fee, I'd expect bargain bin service, including asking you to show the house when they couldn't. But for 2.5%, I'd be expecting them to bring me breakfast in bed every morning, as well as show the blinkin' house. I sold a house last year with one of the big boys who have offices all over the place. I was charged 1.25% fee plus about 600 euros up front to pay for marketing fees, having professional photos taken and putting the listing up online. Show the house your self if you want, but by all means renegotiate the fee. It is way too high.

When I sold last year, I had to vacate the house during viewings. I asked the estate agent if I could stay as the house had selling points that I did not thinks she was highlighting well. She told me I could if I want to but she'd prefer that I didn't. She said had seen more than one sale be de railed by sellers making a mess of things when asked bluntly by viewers "Why are you selling? "What are the neighbours like?" " Is it warm in winter? " etc etc so in this case, let the seller beware !


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