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Getting The Best Deal - Open Market Properties |
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 'Open market' properties are those sold through personal ads and estate agents. They can also be sold by auction, but rarely is that the best method in a weak market. Where a property has a lot of land associated with it, a smallholding for instance, auction is often the best method, as everything can be parcelled into individual 'lots', the price of the parts usually coming to greater than the whole.
Estate agents now split into effectively two types - those that charge by flat fee and those that charge on a percentage basis. It would be unfair to say which is the best deal, because the best is the one that sells the property at the highest price, but generally you won't find many stately homes sold by flat fee agents.
However, as the potential purchaser looking for the best deal, your interest in all this is quite simply finding out how many agents the property you're considering is with. It is almost standard practise for an estate agent to offer better terms (i.e. charge a lower percentage) for a 'sole' agency (where only they can do the selling) compared with a 'shared' agency (where anyone can sell it). Under most sole agency agreements you still have to pay a fee even where you do the selling!
If a property is going to sell easily, the vendor will be looking for the best deal possible - i.e. a sole agency with the best agent around. Where a property is proving hard to move, or potentially looks that way, then many agents can get involved. As the potential purchaser, if you're looking at a property with the equivalent of an estate agents' Christmas tree of signs outside then you know that you'll be able to squeeze the asking price.
The reasons for the shared agency should be investigated thoroughly before you make an offer. Someone that's financially squeezed, or where they've moved on and it's their company doing the sale, is obviously less of a risk compared with a property that people simply don't want to buy. You'll undoubtedly want to move yourself one day and may end up with the same problem.
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