Does estate agent get fee when house is sold privately

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3CC

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Hi,

We have our house for sale on Daft.ie and also with a local EA.

We have someone interested in the house via Daft so if we sell it to them, presumably we are not liable for the fee to the EA?

Am I right? Any comments?

Thanks.
 
The EA would be entitled to charge for any expenses incurred on your behalf even if the sale is secured through some other means.
 
I know very little about this so apologies if I'm off base. Do EAs have you sign an agreement before they will represent you? I'd imagine so, as presumably they don't want you also selling through another EA, regardless of what you do on DAFT. So is there an exclusivity clause in the agreement? If there is one, it may not distinguish between prohibiting selling through another EA vs a more public route, such as DAFT. What if you have a "for sale" sign outside the door and someone just pops in to see the house, thus avoiding the EA - do you have to pay the EA if you sell the house to popper-by? I'd imagine you would. If you have a contract, have a look through and see if there's an exclusivity clause in it.

Sprite
 
Thanks for the replies.

When we sold our last house a number of years ago we got a contract that dealt with exclusivity etc. This time (different EA), we got a letter which does not mention exclusivity and no contract. We have already paid the EA for advertising etc.

Just so you do not think I am being tight fisted - I am quite happy to pay the EA if the come up with a buyer. But in my experience the quality of the service they offer is very variable and I guess that I can do just as good a job myself. if I do, I would be loath to pay the EA for my hard work.
 

Is that the quality of service of your current EA? If your not happy with them change them or do it privately if you feel that you are the one doing all of the work and can do as good a job yourself. Why engage an EA if you feel that they cannot offer you anything in return for their fee?
 
We live in a small coastal village where there are 3 estate agents. We have dealt with them all in the past as prospective buyers and were never impressed very much. In some cases it would seem that they are more interesed in making a sale at any cost rather than representing their client's best interests. Having said that, the one we did choose seems to be reasonable enough. The lady managing the business is quite good but once things get delegated to other people, it all goes south a bit. In order to get things right, we have sent everything by email with clear instructions as to what we want but there have still been plenty of minor mess ups. I realise that we expect a high standard of service but the fees are not cheap so we expect some value for money.

The EA does not use daft so we put it up there ourselves for more exposure. We seem to have an interested party through daft and nothing through the EA at the moment (although to be fair it is only on the market a few weeks).
 
no exclusivity clause .. no fee
EAs get very tetch about this which just shows you how unstable they even find their own postion
I am selling now in Dublin and asked several agents if they wouldn't mind selling as well as myself on sell-yourself + daft etc. They all nearly wet their pants and said ABSOLUTELY NOT. Up until that moment they were full of the 'we're the best, we'll get you the best price' we've a hugh database of ready buyers'. When I said then that they'd probably come through with a sale better than I would and why were they worried they couldn't answer

The reality is, a daft ad will attract as much, and if you show the house and close a sale at a price that you are genuinely happy with (here the EAs will all say 'well you don't have the negotiation skills' - but the market will only pay what it'll pay) why should the EA get anything. If they get upset then its their own fault for not getting their finger out and finding a buyer themselves.

Personally I see no reason why EVERYONE shouldn't be allowed to sell their own house alongside an agent - whoever sells wins - no find no fee etc. I mirrir your EA experience - have bought / sold a few over the years and yet to meet any EA who REALLY sold a property other than letting people in. currently selling via a large national EA in Dundrum who were full of 'the market isn't so bad' prior to signing with them and then 'things have really slowed down' as soon as it was signed (literally 2 hours later!)

to sum up - you find a buyer - they didn't - you save their fee IMHO - EA rant over!
 
Daddycool, why do you bother with EA's when you are the best man for the job? You haven't met an EA that has sold a house 'they only let people in', don't know how you can come to that conclusion unless you have been shadowing their movments but like the OP if you obviously don't regard the EA's service as being useful then don't engage them for their service. The reason EA's tend to be reluctant about agreeing to let the vendor sell alonside them is that some interested parties will try to bypass the EA (even after initially using them) to try and strike up a deal with the vendor. You will see on past threads here that quite often the advice that people dish out is to go straight to the vendor, so the EA does need some form of protection.
 
daddycool,

Sounds familiar. EA said they had someone interested when they pitched to us but said 'actually they want a bigger garden' now that we have given them the (verbal) go-ahead.

Just another minor rant. Everytime I ring an EA to view a property, they react with horror at the idea that you might want to view a property after 7pm or god forbid on a Sunday.

EA's generally want to show houses in working hours (admittedly they will do it on a Sat morning) when prospective buyers generally want to see them outside working hours. It suits me down to the ground to show my house after work or at the weekend.

I assume that you have to be licenced to operate a an EA but what is to stop me from setting up a Buyer Introduction Service. I could advertise on daft, put up a sign and do showings in the evenings all for a flat fee of €2000 (€500 in advance to cover advertising)
 
Mr Man,

Fair point. I agree that EA's should be paid an agreed fee for a good service. But I also feel that exclusivity clauses make for poor motivation on the EA's part to do their best.

As I said before, if the EA comes up with the goods , they deserve the fee, and vice versa.
 


i have always felt that when there are more than one EA on the case less gets done. Exclusivity is fine if the EA is working and providing you with the service you deserve, and he can be dumped if he doesn't.
 
Just another minor rant. Everytime I ring an EA to view a property, they react with horror at the idea that you might want to view a property after 7pm or god forbid on a Sunday.
Click to expand...

In fairness people do expect you to show them a property at any time and my reasons for not agreeing to late evenings and sundays would be.
1. You are generally asking a vendor to leave their home at evening/night, which often entails uprooting kids etc.
2. Viewing houses can be a hobby for alot of people and if they really can't put aside a time mon-sat to view a house that they will be paying for over the next 30 odd years then I would question exactly how interested they are.
3. There is the aspect of safety for night time viewings.
4. By and large I have had very little in the line of success in transferring late viewings into serious bids as they do often tend to be wasters.
5. It is nice to meet the family and have a life away from the office from time to time.
 
Mr Man,

To be fair I think you have some valid points, but to give you the vendors point of view.

1. As the vendor, I would ike to be given this option. Perhaps the EA could ask the vendor for any times they will not permit viewings at the outset.
2. Fair point - but on the other hand, EA's are often very creative in their descriptions of the properties and I have seen many properties that were a waste of my time due to the EA's less than direct descriptions. It works both ways. I do not want to take time off work to see another "excellent property in walk-in condition" that has not seen a paint can in ten years.
3. Possibly. Although I would have thought that there is a bigger risk to EA's employees for viewings of remote rural properties. Not sure if argument holds strong for an 8pm viewing in an estate on a bright summer evening.
4. I would be a serious buyer if I could get a viewing!
5. Very good point. I can't argue with that. But I would expect an EA to make it clear that they will not handle viewings outside X hours prior to accepting the appointment.
 
Well said MrMan. I have two girls under the age of three who go to bed every night at 7pm and they need their tea before that. Anything other than this really upsets their sleep for the night and their routine for the next few days. Although tell that to our estate agent and we get "well do you want to sell or not"
 
dmkelly,

I will generally ask the vendor if they want to have a late viewing if it is after eight though I won't, if I can't negotiate a time what hope a price!

Definitely agree with you on point 2. I sat down with another EA recently and we both agreed that this was one of the most harmful aspects of modern house selling. The brochure is now taken with a (large) pinch of salt has lost any great usefulness. I saw an interesting programme before, i think it was in the uk and the EA was being very descriptive i.e this home is suitable for housing pigs, or dark enough for dracula to live in etc and apparently he was doing quite well. Don't think I'd have the neck to chance it though.

Point three is valid for plenty of estates!
 
Mr Man,

Just as with many professions, I am sure there are many EA's who offer a good value for money service. We sold a previous house in Drogheda and the EA we used was top class.

I am sure you belong to this group but the behaviour of a few is bringing into question the ability and motives of all. Sounds like a jobs for a strong professional association to sort out. Where are the IAVA on this?
 
Well they have been very pro-active in terms of literature sent to members etc but there has been very little real change. The regulatory body that was being talked about 3 years ago still isn't on the horizon so there is plenty for the IAVI to do to really show that it is not there to simply defend us from the bad publicity (that has largely been our own making).

I think until real regulation comes into play there will still be a mix of good and very bad agents, we all have our off days, but some are genuinely useless.
 
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