Legally speaking, is there anything that would prohibit me from approaching a vendor personally with a view to making a deal without the agent they have engaged?
Most agents have an exclusive contract arrangement with the vendor for a certain period of time, if this period has lapsed or is terminated there should be no problem so long as the agent did not introduce you to the vendor. If this is the case there are usually penalty clauses in place. It really depends on the contract terms , most of them are pretty tight
It would be possible by offering the agent some form of compensation. Of course it needs to be in such a way that you benefit finacially out of it; as opposed to using the agent & therefore reducing the incentive to the developer to offer a reduced price, as he has to pay agent fees.
You can approach the vendor with no problems legal or ethical. People feel the way to sell a house is to get an agent and he will do the work. People find it too hard to sell themselves as they are emotionally attached to the product. The golden rule in going directly to the vendor is to not cut the agent out of his commission. Win -Win for all is a good thing.
Dave
If the vendor has employed an agent, they have generally done so to reduce the stress of selling. One of these stressors for a vendor is negotiating a price. The agent is employed to get the best price for the vendor. I know if I employed an agent, I would be annoyed if a potential buyer tracked me down and tried to negotiate with me personally.
Why can’t you give your offer to the agent to pass on?
kay henry
To achieve a lower price.
dc summed it up perfectly. Ive almost finished my Estate Agent’s licence (in Victoria) and basically it depends on the Authority between the Agent & Vendor. If it is:
* Exclusive/Sole: The agent will get commission once the property is sold, whether they introducy the purchaser or not;
* General: Agent will only get commission if they introduce the purchaser to the vendor.
I am unaware as to any laws that prohibit a potential purchaser from approaching the vendor, however there are 2 issues: the one mentioned by Kay above (vendor employs agent to sell house so they dont have to), and that if the vendor has an Exclusive/Sole agreement, they will have to pay agent’s fees anyway, so probably won’t come down much in price. This is where creative purchasing is useful, as explained in Steve’s book (& on this site)
Cheers!(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)
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