Signing the agency agreement

There are three types of agency agreements when selling your property, although your agent will only advised you about two of them.

Sole agency: - you are committing yourself to exclusively use one agent for a set time period. We can’t stress this point enough, please do not sign a time period for longer that 8 weeks including the termination period, because if they don’t stick to their promises and you are not happy with them, you can then change estate agents. You might still have to give them notice but at least you can get out of the contract and move forward with another agent.

(Our recommendation is 4 weeks but if you are happy to continue with your present agent please do so)

Multi Agency: - this is where you can have as many estate agents as you want. This type of agreement does not have a set time period but please note two things. Number 1, this route is going to cost you more than sole agency. Number 2, don’t put the property on the market with too many estate agents as this causes you to look desperate, invite ridiculous offers or people can think that there is something wrong with the property.

(Our recommendation is that you should never put the property on the market with more than 3 estate agents)

The one they don’t tell you about!

Joint agency: - Unlike multi agency you can only have two agents and you are tied into a set time frame like the sole agency contract. Please make sure that the agents work on a winner takes all basis, meaning who ever sells the property gets paid. Some agents work on split commission; this is of no benefit to you whatsoever, because they have no motivation to sell the property, you end up paying them anyway.

(Our recommendation is that this is the better option out of the 3, because most of the time it is the same commission as sole agency. 2 for the price of 1. Also when you go multi agency a long of estate agents feel that they could be wasting their time).

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Home Information Pack (HIP)
Putting up the sales boards
Notifing your neighbours
Property viewing & availability
Guarantees & certificates
Getting a Solicitor