Hi there,
My name is Steve and I’ve been a member of this forum for a while but never posted. Just been enjoying reading all the hints and tips for when I make the move to go and live and work in Spain. When the time comes I will be posting alot so be warned! 😉. Now that I’m making my first post I will probably do so quite often from now.
Anyway, I have a few questions which revolve around my dad. He used to live in spain (is now in Scotland) and is selling his house at the moment. He’s got a situation in which he’s asked me for advice, but I’ve not got the experience to help him out so I said I’d post on this forum and see if I get any answers. So, here goes…
He’s had his house in Estepa (Andalucia) advertised at an estate agent for ages - no contract or anything agreed apart from knowing what the commission rate is. The house is priced to include the commission (I understand that is the way they sometimes do this - that way the buyer pays the fees). The keys are not with the agent - they are with a friend of my dad in the same town. This is so that the friend carries out weekly maintenance & cleaning, etc which the agent wouldn’t do. The house has been with a couple of other agents in the past with no interest and the price has been lowered gradually. He’s been with the current agent for 6 months and recently he lowered the price (as most people are I guess) and has got two interested parties. The agent took each party in turn to the house via the friend’s house (where the agent collected the keys) and showed them round the house.
Both viewers said they were interested. However, in the days following, one viewer went direct to my dad’s friend (who had the keys) and asked if she’d contact my dad to see if he’s interested in dealing direct (via solicitors, but without the agent). My dad isn’t sure of the details of going direct, but suspects that the potential buyer wants to avoid paying the asking price and maybe is chancing their arm at getting a direct deal which includes a cut down price. It would still involve solicitors to exchange everything.
The only advantage I can see for my dad to go direct is that he’d have a better chance of retaining a potential buyer’s interest rather than lose a chance to sell the house. It is preferable that my dad stick with the agent from a moral perspective more than anything but hey, whats a gentlemans agreement nowadays. Anyway, even though the agent really hasn’t done a great deal to try and push the sell to anyone he has advertised it in the shop window.
My questions are as follows (as my dad may know some of the answers but I want to know myself for sure). They are:
1. Is this is a potential scam or not?
2. What is the likely reason for the direct request from the party?
3. Are there implications with not going via the agent?
4. Is it normal for this to happen in Spain?
5. Pitfalls and advantages if any?
6. Anything else I really should know?
Sorry for the naivety, but I really want to learn from the responses for my own future as well. Thanks, and a really useful site.
Regards, Steve
