Estate agents question

[oliveview01]

we saw a nice house with one agent (we have not signed any contract or anything with them) and since have seen the house 20,000€ cheaper with another agent, is it like the Uk here in Spain, once you have been ´introduced´with one agent you cannot then purchase via another? We have not said to the first agent we want the house, only we were thinking about it. (that is until I saw the other agents webpage today!)

[sunkissed]

What could they do, hold a gun to your head? You haven't signed anything.

I wouldn't think suing you for 20k would stand up in court just for making an introduction. You could just as likely counter claim for extortion

[hillybilly]

If anything, the estate agent will have made the vendor sign an agreement (hopefully not a sole agency one - could be the property should have been taken off the other agents books, this happened to us) to the effect that they will "have" to pay their commission if another sale is forthcoming as a result of their original introduction. This has nothing to do with you though so go for it.

[paulellis]

You will often find properties being advertised on an Agents site, without them even officially having them to list (they do it to make their site look 'busy'). We had ours being 'advertised for sale' 6 months after we had purchased it & with an agent the vendors had never even spoken to.

Having said that, I agree with sunkissed, what can they do if you have signed nothing. The difference in price probably reflects their commission demands & if you can therefore get it cheaper with another agent, good luck to you

[Beachcomber]

Friends of ours have a property for sale in a small inland village. They have returned to the UK through ill-health, we have their power of attorney and an independent estate agent in the village has the property on their books to sell.

They have not been granted sole agency rights but we know for a fact that they are the only agents with whom the property has been placed.

A few days ago some harridan from one of the 'chain' agencies turned up with some clients to show them the property and demanded the keys. She became quite vicious when we told her that the vendor would rather leave the property unsold than accept the involvement of this agency.

We suggested she took the clients to the agency which legitimately had the property on their books but she said that she was not going to share the paltry 3% commission that they were charging and that she wanted 10% all for herself.

She was sent away with a flea in her ear but this proves that the chain agencies do exactly as paulellis suggested and try to hijack other agents properties.

[geegee]

I can testify to a similar experience as a purchaser. I saw my future house in the local (Spanish) estate agent's window in the town at a very reasonable price, viewed and reserved the same day.

Few weeks later, browsing the web I came across an English agent who had it on his website for 27,000€ more! We bought from a little old Spanish lady who still worked in pesetas and had never left the pueblo so it was highly unlikely she had even heard of this agent. When I emailed the rogue agent and challenged the listing, he got extremely unpleasant.

Seems these practices are rife!

[Guest]

Olive, it's a free market and you can buy from whomsoever gives you the best deal, in fact if you go to the cheaper agent and they then say it's sold or some similar bull you can sue them for misrepresentation!

[costakid]

Your free to buy from the cheapest agent aslong as you hav'nt signed anything. We hadto sign an intro slip as soon as we viewed a place to stop you going behind the agents back.

[jane grant]

This happened to some people we met last week who also saw a property they liked with two different agents and at two different prices. They used it as a bargaining tool, playing one agent off against the other and managed a 2000E reduction on the cheapest price from the dearest agent. (If that makes sense!)

[AguilaMike]

The apartment we bought through a Spanish agent in Arroyo de la Miel was still being offered by an Engish estate agent 3 months later at €12,000 more than we paid for it.

I posed as a prospective buyer and called them to enquire about the apartment. When they confirmed the price, I told them the address and the price we paid 3 months earlier. They put the phone down on me !

[paulellis]

Strange that Jane, when I enquired why ours was advertised for sale, when the agent hadn't even been given permission by the previous owners to market the property, I had the same response - SILENCE!

[Grouser]

One house we looked at direct through the owner was also with several estate agents. I think one after the other had picked it up, as the price got progressivly higher the further away the estate agents office was from the property. So look around a bit you may find it with another agent even cheaper.
We had also set up viewings of properties via the internet only to find that those particular houses had been sold, some many months ago and it was just a scam to get us to go out and look at places we were not interested in. Some estate agents in Spain manage to make the ones in England look like saints, something I would have thought impossible.

[metalmonkey]

Hi

Is there a downside of buying from an agent who has sole agency on a property?

ta

Monkey

[Guest]

I don't know if there's a down side, I guess it depends on their level of honesty (none of them can be called truly honest) one things for sure, you'll only have one price guide to negotiate on!

[Susan2]

Hi Syd - what about a big company? They have a reputation to uphold - I went to Andalucian Dream Homes and was (and continue to be) very happy with them. I agree it's no good going to a friend of a friend of a neighbour who knows the owner who wants to be an "estate agent" - that's such rubbish. It takes professionals in the UK and it's the same in Spain. Check out personal recommendations and check out the market in your area seems to be a good motto.