Estate Agent Fees
Now call me cynical if you want, but I think I've just fallen foul of the "Estate Agent Scam". Briefly it's like this:- You ask them to put the house on the market and they say it's (e.g.) 2% of the price. They say the house is worth (an inflated) £250k and therefore their fee is £5k. So you agree for them to sell it 'cos that's a lot more than you expected the house is worth. You sign an agreement which says "I agree to pay you £5,000 on sale".
Now, a small time later, they say "Oh, it's not had any interest, how about reducing the price to a more realistic £200k?" - but, and here's the catch, there's no mention about reducing the fee because you signed an agreement for a fixed £5,000 not 2% of the selling price.
I've checked with them and this is the case it's a fixed fee based on the original asking price which they put on in the first place. In my case, this was not made clear and we spoke about percentages - spookily enough, it was all done over the phone so there's no record of this.
I urge you to check what the small print actually means.
Watch this space.
BTW: The Estate Agents is Dixons Estate Agents in Wolverhampton should you be interested in buying my bungalow...
Now, a small time later, they say "Oh, it's not had any interest, how about reducing the price to a more realistic £200k?" - but, and here's the catch, there's no mention about reducing the fee because you signed an agreement for a fixed £5,000 not 2% of the selling price.
I've checked with them and this is the case it's a fixed fee based on the original asking price which they put on in the first place. In my case, this was not made clear and we spoke about percentages - spookily enough, it was all done over the phone so there's no record of this.
I urge you to check what the small print actually means.
Watch this space.
BTW: The Estate Agents is Dixons Estate Agents in Wolverhampton should you be interested in buying my bungalow...
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