An estate agency is offering to sell people’s homes – and to pay them.
A flyer from Century 21 to households in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, seems to highlight what could be a growing trend, with agents promoting online auction services to sellers who are charged nothing and may even be paid after they put their properties forward.
The agent’s flyer tells households: “We pay YOU to sell your home!”
It adds: “Sell your home for free and earn £1,000 cashback.”
The deal that is then explained is that sellers responding to Century 21 use an auction package, which will not only charge no commission but actually pay vendors.
The £1,000 cashback is payable on completion – presumably coming out of the commission that the purchaser will be charged.
The leaflet tells sellers that they can set their own timeline and reserve prices, and that “auctions are suitable for all types of properties”.
Century 21 The Chalfonts is part of Century 21 UK, which is run by large property firm SDL Group. Century 21 UK itself is part of one the world’s largest networks of estate agents, with over 8,000 offices and 111,000 sales professionals spanning 81 countries worldwide.
The firm also has an auction business, SDL Auctions, which claims to complete over £200m worth of sales each year.
SDL, formerly known as Shepherd Direct, acquired two major auction businesses some three years ago, CP Bigwood and Graham Penny.
A spokesperson for SDL, asked to comment on its agent’s “We pay YOU to sell your home” campaign, confirmed the tie-up with its auctions arm but said that the payment offer was not unique, with other auctioneers running similar offers in conjunction with partner estate agents.
The Property Ombudsman has recently told agents that they must tell sellers that online auctions where buyers pay commission may mean that the vendor’s property does not achieve the best possible price as buyers factor in their own costs. Agents must also disclose their own commissions under a new code being promoted by the regulator, the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team.
Comments (13)
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So if it is the buyer paying the fees, the buyer is the customer and the seller is a pawn for someone else to make money out of their unduly circumstance?
Morals out the window, the seller is not achieving the best price, the buyer is the customer and the agent is a con artist.
Isn’t this regulated?
Isn’t this regulated?
Seemingly not…yet.
Another gimmick for a desperate agency to win business.
Being from round my neck of the woods, I am not quite sure who thought opening this agency in Chalfont would be a great idea. There are already a number of well respected agencies operating in the area, and its def not the place for a poor low end franchise.
And not forgetting stamp duty has to be paid on the increasingly high buyers’ premiums – all helping to reduce the sale price of the property.
I’ve used this service to good effect but it’s certainly not selling for free. As ever, someone has to pay and there’s no such thing as a free lunch? The buyer pays the fee but because of this it affects how much they can pay for the house.
’Quid pro quo’…….
Might as well throw in Grannie too.
I have the option on my site but have not done any referrals to the auctioneer; as every time I am asked about it I just convert the enquiry to a normal sale.
I just can’t bring myself to recommend it as an option, as I don’t see the benefit to the vendor.
They will end up with a lower figure, which is not what we are here for!!!
These types of sale are perfect for a selection of vendors, where the alternative of submitting them to the woes of private treaty simply doesn’t meet their needs.
How is it in the vendors benefit to make them wait 16 or so weeks for their sale to complete only for their buyer to back out as something else has come onto the market that they prefer? Yes the vendor may accept a slightly lower price (often when I’ve used these types of sales they still get the same) but if they need to complete quicker than the usual snail pace and have the peace of mind that the buyer isn’t going to back out on them, then what better way is there for them to get on with whatever it is that they need to do?
On the flipside to this, how is it fair to make a vendor wait weeks til the “closing date” not knowing if their property will sell but having to market it significantly lower in price to attract interest. Also as i understand it, if the purchaser pulls out, it isnt the vendor that gets the huge fee, so they lose out any way.
Fair point, however do you sell all of your properties in the estimated time you give the vendor? And what does your vendor get when buyers pull out through private treaty? All I know is that I’ve had 22% of my sales fall through this year under the normal method, but the few sales where I’ve used the auction process have all gone through quickly, and both buyers and sellers were happy.
As with anything in life, you dont know until it happens. 22% fall throughs sounds very high, we are currently at 8%. These types of sales just dont sit right with me morally, if a quick sale is needed then price the house accordingly no need for anything else in my opinion.
In my opinion these type of agreements are purely there to get a higher fee which is paid by the buyer.
I agree with this last point – our cancellation rate is 5%
The morality of these type of property sales really must be questioned. When the buyer is paying a huge fee, normally split 50/50 between agent and auction company, who is the client, who is going to get preferential treatment? Also as we all know, in most cases the buyer adjusts their offer to compensate for the huge fee to pay.
There is no saving to the vendor, it probably ends up costing them money