I'm currently with an estate agent… Can I still sell to you?

We can still buy - and we can help sort the issue

We can still buy your home even if you’re already selling with an estate agent.

It can be a little tricky – but we deal with this all the time and we’re here to help sort it for you.

What’s the issue?

When you sign a contract with an estate agent, there’s a clause that says you’ll need to pay their fee if you sell to a buyer they’ve found for you.

This is fair enough. After all, they held up their side of the bargain (finding you a buyer), so they should earn their fee.

Another clause...

But there’s usually another clause too, that isn’t so straight forward. It effectively says that they’ll be due their fee if the property sells during their contract period – even if they’ve not found the buyer.

In other words, if your estate agent fails to sell your home and you decide come to us and we end buying from you, the contract states that the agent will still be due their fee.

It can be fair...

Although this sounds quite unfair, there is a reason it's there. To protect the agents, and make sure they get their fee when they've done their job. For example, marketing costs: Estate agents spend a huge amount of money on marketing your home to try and get it attention. Imagine someone sees one of those adverts, then comes and knocks on your door, and you end up selling to them. Now, the agent technically found that buyer for you - but there's no way of really proving it. So this clause is really there to make sure the agent gets paid when they've done their job - but just can't directly prove it...

There's also unfair usage of this clause...

However, some agents have been known to take advantage of this clause. They can sign you into the contract, then not do much to get your home sold. Then when you have to take matters into your own hands and drum up interest yourself or go to another agent and eventually sell the property... Then the agent pops up pointing to this clause, demanding their fee.

Doesn’t seem quite so fair…

What we do

 If you’re already in contract with an estate agent, let us know when you first speak with us. We can take a look at the contract for you and see if you might be affected. We know these contracts inside-out so can get to the bottom of it quickly.  

If you are likely to be affect, we can speak with your agent and get their agreement to let you sell to us without a fee.

Why would your agent agree to this?

Well, usually because we may end up selling the property with them after we’ve purchased it from you. This means they can do the right thing by you, and still end up earning a fee for the sale of the house. A win-win for them… 

What if the agent doesn’t agree?

Well, another reason the agent may be likely to go along with the solution above is that they’re  powerless to stop the sale anyway, and if you tell your solicitor not to pay them on completion they're going to have a really difficult time extracting their fee.

And anyway, the fact is that most agents are fair - despite the bad rap they sometimes get.

If they’ve not sold your home for the price they hoped to and you’ve had to take matters into your own hands, most agents will usually accept that they’ve let you down, and release you from the contract.

What if the agent still doesn’t agree?

This really rarely happens. Remember, your local agent works in the same area all the time – and local reputation matters a lot. Being unfair is bad for reputation, and the agent will lose out in the long run as word spreads.

In the really rare example where an agent still won’t budge, we can usually agree some sort of way forward so they’ll release you from the contract.

Summary 

So, long story short, if you’re in contract with an estate agent you can still sell your home to us. We deal with this all the time, so we can help sort it out.

Just let us know if you're in contract with an estate agent when you first speak with us.

Read More

• Tired of waiting on your estate agent? Learn more about a fast house sale
• Read more about our service on our home page