Advice/Help...

[Robbie84]

Evening all,

This is a fairly long question so will keep it short as poss!!

Need some advice on the following: I am thinking of starting an estate agency in my area. I am looking to break into the market with the obvious lower fees for a time period. Am I allowed to directly target homesellers that have another agent to sell. I understand the sole agency thing, but if they are my own buyers that I have generated is this allowed or will I get in trouble and will the "sole agent" still receive the commission if one of my clients offers/buys the property?

Thanks

 

[Paul_Rosser]

The sole agent would have a contract saying only they can market/sell the house and if the sell via someone else they will have to pay a penalty.

What you could do is look at houses which have been on the market for a while as then the seller would be able (depending on the contract) cancel the sole agency agreement, also the existing estate agent shouldn't mind as they don't like unsold property on their list for long periods of time

 

[Robbie84]

Can the homeowner change or opt out of the contract or would they need to see it out.

Perhaps targeting future sellers would be better

 

[Paul_Rosser]

Will depend on the contract, usually they say "You will give us X weeks to sell your property, during this time you can't go with anyone else, after this you can"