Selling up!

[zeb]

If the house is on the market with French agencies, is it also possible to market it privately, say with FPN and similar?

regards........helen

[LesLauriers]

Your contract with the Agencies will tell you. Normally, if you do not sign an exclusive agreement, you are free to sell it yourself.

[Will]

As far as I know, you should be free to sell it however you like. Obviously, if an agent introduces a buyer, the buyer can't then suddenly switch to a private sale in order to cut out the fees. And you will be responsible for showing people round, and negotiating etc with them, for all who reply to your FPN ad. That can be a bit of a hassle.

[Anton Redman]

It depends on exactly what the contract which the vender has signed says. Century 21 are currently spending a lot of money promoting their success with 'Sole Agency Deals' their standard contract says they are paid irrespective of who or how the property is sold. Two months down the line of looking for a 'real' house in France I think this is step in the right direction.

[LesLauriers]

"It depends on exactly what the contract which the vender has signed says. Century 21 are currently spending a lot of money promoting their success with 'Sole Agency Deals' their standard contract says they are paid irrespective of who or how the property is sold. Two months down the line of looking for a 'real' house in France I think this is step in the right direction."

Why do you think this is a step in the right direction?

For the seller it is restrictive and places them at a distinct disadvantage, it limits the exposure of the property to only one agent and therefore only one advertising budget, one internet site, possibly one agents window.

Worse should the seller be in a position to sell the property themselves they or the buyer would be liable to pay Century 21's fees!!!

As a seller I would wish to obtain the maximum exposure for my property by advertising direct, and by offering the house through as many notaires and agencies as I possibly could and by using a for sale board. My objective would be to have my property put under as many noses as is possible in order to ensure a sale.

Sole agency deals are great for the agent as they get paid regardless of who sells the house and regardless of how long it takes to sell, I can see no merit in this for a seller and it makes it more difficult for a buyer to discover the property.

I would be interested to understand why you are for it? Do they reduce the fees for the buyer dramatically?

[Anton Redman]

“ Sole agency deals are great for the agent as they get paid regardless of who sells the house and regardless of how long it takes to sell, I can see no merit in this for a seller and it makes it more difficult for a buyer to discover the property.

I would be interested to understand why you are for it? Do they reduce the fees for the buyer dramatically? “

 

Sole agency deals allow the agency to release the commune and enough other details to allow you simply to drive by the property and decide if it is for you.  A drivepast does not allow you to decide to buy but it definitely allows you discount properties very quickly.  Last week both I and the estate agent wasted two hours on a property which had the right floor area, a good location but ceilings at 1.90 downstairs and 1.75  upstairs. 

 

Sole agency deals would also mean the majority of houses for sale would have Agents Boards,  as opposed to a small minority.  Many French agents dislike having boards up because encourages other agents to canvass the same house.

 

There are few worse ways of spending the day than sorting through sets of particulars only to find that you are being taken to a house which you have already visited. We are now very careful to gross check against photos/maps before being taken anywhere.

 

Internet sites are even worse, we recently loaded the same house with four agents at three different prices, and two different descriptions of rooms and total space. Even if I brave the local Cyber Café amid the students playing the latest Doomalike  or Castle Wolfenstein many French and UK sites are very slow even via ISDN.

 

The current fee structure provides every encouragement to estate agents to take on any property they are offered and price it at whatever the client as for.   I have yet to see them actively marketing properties rather than themselves as source of properties.  When the time comes to sell, I would rather have one agent with a defined target price and a clear timeframe to make a sale.

 

Alternatively I might spend about 25% of the agent’s fee and have a serious go at marketing the house first.   The current process just encourages properties to be taken on over a large area with very little local concentration of resources. 

[epinay]

We were surprised and impressed with the service our chosen agent offered.  We chose an established, privately owned french agency (bi-lingual) whose office is in a prominent position in the town.  They took brilliant photos which were in the window and on their website within days.  We gave them sole agency for 2 months, and they were through the door with viewers constantly, often several times a day, which for one of the houses meant a 25 minute drive each way.  The two houses we have sold (one in 2002, one in 2004) went within the 8 week period, both at the asking price which in both cases was higher than we originally thought they would be, which made the "buyer pays the fees" appear true to us.  They gave us a "vendors price" which we were happy with, but marketed the house at a higher price to include the fees.  This is standard practise.

I can't fault the service they provided, and now we are buying through them, so this time we have to pay their fees - but I think they are worth it.

We could have marketed the houses we sold privately (we had our own website with lovely photos etc for gite bookings) but we would not have had the volume of people through the door - for a start we were in the UK while most of the viewings took place.  I am certain they would have taken a lot longer to sell, and it would have been very difficult to arrange all the viewings and the necessary paperwork. 

A professional agent will also deal with the transfer of utilities, tax foncieres and habitation forms etc to the new owner which can be a great relief if the buyer is an inexperienced brit struggling with the language.  The agent will also act as translator at the Notaire's office for the signing if required.

Most of the property displayed on websites are already sold, because they are not the actual agents.  But, if you know the name of the high street Immobiliers and get their sites up, they are more up to date. Also the Notaires site www.immonot.com where no agent is involved, thus saving agents fees.

Another thing to bear in mind:  High street windows usually display the price of the property including agents fees, but excluding Notaires fees, for the french local market.  The same house on their English language website may have a higher price, but be all inclusive.  This is not them ripping off foreigners, but displaying the total price INCLUDING Notaires fees.

Epinay

 

[Judie]

When I take on properties, the mandats are always " sans exclusivité " allowing the vendor to sell privately if they wish and also to engage however many other agencies they wish. Why not? A little healthy competition never hurt anyone!

 

Judie