Sole mandate for estate agents

[blunomore]

We are trying to sell our JHB property and I was wondering what your opinions are on giving a sole mandate to an estate agent.

Every single one of them who walked through my doors spent about 70% of their time here trying to convince me to give them a sole mandate.

It pisses me off because IMO they cannot guarantee me a sale, so they should simply compete with the other agents on an equal footing.

Is it really better to give them an exclusive mandate?

 

[ToxicBunny]

blu, bargain..

Tell the agent, if they want sole mandate then they must drop their commision to a reasonable level for the sole mandate...

If they want 7% normally, then for Sole Mandate they can get 3% during that period...

Granted, play them all off against each other ANYWAY, even if you don't got for Sole Mandate..... but you want to sell your property, you don't need to sell it (i'm guessing) so you have all the power in the negotiations, not them

 

[Ono'rach]

It is better for the estate agent, not you.

If they have the sole mandate, then they can get the maximum amount of commission out of the sale. If however the property is listed on RNS, then any estate agent may sell the property listed on RNS, but they would have to share the commission with the estate agent who listed the property in the first place.

 

[blunomore]

blu, bargain..

Tell the agent, if they want sole mandate then they must drop their commision to a reasonable level for the sole mandate...

If they want 7% normally, then for Sole Mandate they can get 3% during that period...

Granted, play them all off against each other ANYWAY, even if you don't got for Sole Mandate..... but you want to sell your property, you don't need to sell it (i'm guessing) so you have all the power in the negotiations, not them

I do not NEED to sell it, but would really like to do it as fast as possible to get my hands on another property.

Tired of strangers traipsing through my house. One woman looked into the kitchen and said to me: "Not important, because I do not cook". WTF?

It's explained here:
http://www.property24.com/articles/the-point-of-sole-mandate/4143

And some advice here:
http://answerit.news24.com/Question/I signed a sole mandate contract with an agency in Jan 80./3868

Probably not a good idea to give them the mandate for more than a month.

I already gave it to 3 different agencies, so am unable to give anyone a sole mandate, but they keep on asking ... FFS!!

 

[shogun]

Do not go with Sole Mandate. When I sold my place, I said no to sole mandate, spoke to as many agents as I could (and let them know I was speaking to other agents too), and eventually the one that I was least expecting a sale from, came through. If I had given sole mandate to the one I thought would pull through, then I would have been locked in and denied a sale.

Although if I had to do it again, I would set up a small webpage and use adwords. This seems to be a new trend that's working well these days.

 

[Venomous]

careful of sole mandates.

read the fine print regarding SM.

What normally happens is: The say give me a SM for 180days(???). In the fine print there is a FURTHER CLAUSE that gives them right to claim their commisions for a further 180days(???) should the house not have been sold in the first part.
That means that if you sell your OWN house on say day 190 to a buyer that they did not even show the property too they STILL GET their commission.
I would cancel that clause out & sign next to it, agent to sign too. or I would not even give them a normal mandate nevermind SM.

 

[blunomore]

careful of sole mandates.

read the fine print regarding SM.

What normally happens is: The say give me a SM for 180days(???). In the fine print there is a FURTHER CLAUSE that gives them right to claim their commisions for a further 180days(???) should the house not have been sold in the first part.
That means that if you sell your OWN house on say day 190 to a buyer that they did not even show the property too they STILL GET their commission.
I would cancel that clause out & sign next to it, agent to sign too. or I would not even give them a normal mandate nevermind SM.

Skelms !!!

 

[McSack]

Personally I wouldn't sign a sole mandate, but then I also wouldn't more than 2 or 3 agents working on my property (and only 2 would be preferable). You don't want to be wh0ring out one of your biggest personal investments to people who don't know schidt about what's really happening in the market

I can understand and established agent wanting a sole mandate so that they feel comfortable spending some time and money on marketing the property, but in my experience there are very few worth their salt who would not work just as hard knowing one or two of their peers also has a shot at selling the property

Look around the area for sold boards, do some enquiries on the specific agent, ask about their qualifications (if someone hasn't bothered by this stage of the game to get the required qualification I wouldn't waste my time with them)
... and tell them up-front you intend using more than one agent in the process so they can forget about the SM

 

[McSack]

They can only claim commission if they can prove they were the effective cause of the sale... irrespective of the illegal fine print they may have include in their mandate

 

[blunomore]

Personally I wouldn't sign a sole mandate, but then I also wouldn't more than 2 or 3 agents working on my property (and only 2 would be preferable). You don't want to be wh0ring out one of your biggest personal investments to people who don't know schidt about what's really happening in the market

I can understand and established agent wanting a sole mandate so that they feel comfortable spending some time and money on marketing the property, but in my experience there are very few worth their salt who would not work just as hard knowing one or two of their peers also has a shot at selling the property

Look around the area for sold boards, do some enquiries on the specific agent, ask about their qualifications (if someone hasn't bothered by this stage of the game to get the required qualification I wouldn't waste my time with them)
... and tell them up-front you intend using more than one agent in the process so they can forget about the SM

We instructed 3 agents and so far all of them brought people, but no offers yet.

I am wary of one of the agents, they seem so unprofessional - their tel no changed and they still have ads showing the old, wrong numbers. Then they made an appointment to bring someone to view the place and they just didn't pitch. When I called the agent he said his partner called me on my landline and left a message. Surely you call the cellphone too if you cannot get hold of someone and want to cancel?!

 

[Venomous]

Skelms !!!

That is why you need to request a blank copy of the contract via email.
print it yourself.
sit one night with hubby & read all the clauses. mark in pencil what you want removed.
get the agent over the next day & sign, remove ....

so that YOU are happy with the contract.

 

[McSack]

We instructed 3 agents and so far all of them brought people, but no offers yet.

I am wary of one of the agents, they seem so unprofessional - their tel no changed and they still have ads showing the old, wrong numbers. Then they made an appointment to bring someone to view the place and they just didn't pitch. When I called the agent he said his partner called me on my landline and left a message. Surely you call the cellphone too if you cannot get hold of someone and want to cancel?!

Fire them
Seriously, you are talking about a substantial transaction here. Would you put up with the same cr@p from a stock broker or banker who you had invested half that amount of money with?

I think people are far too willing to put up with unprofessional service in an industry where massive amounts of money are changing hands. I take a look at some agents and I wouldn't trust them wit 5 bucks, never mind a few hundred thousand ... or million for that matter.

Having said that, I have dealt with people in the property industry who really take their profession and my investment seriously and I keep going back to them when I intend doing a deal

 

[McSack]

That is why you need to request a blank copy of the contract via email.
print it yourself.
sit one night with hubby & read all the clauses. mark in pencil what you want removed.
get the agent over the next day & sign, remove ....

so that YOU are happy with the contract.

excellent advice

 

[Venomous]

We instructed 3 agents and so far all of them brought people, but no offers yet.

I am wary of one of the agents, they seem so unprofessional - their tel no changed and they still have ads showing the old, wrong numbers. Then they made an appointment to bring someone to view the place and they just didn't pitch. When I called the agent he said his partner called me on my landline and left a message. Surely you call the cellphone too if you cannot get hold of someone and want to cancel?!

Cancel their mandate. Permitting it won't cost you money.

Once I dealt with an agent that was a drunk. She showed up for a sunday show house still ''swimming'' & smelling....

Needless to say she did not sell my place.

 

[Nerfherder]

Always negotiate.

I don't think a sole mandate is a good idea but its also possible to just have one agent.

Also like mentioned above agree on a price and commission, then if you get a lower price they get a lower commission etc...

 

[Pynet]

One positive on a sole mandate is that the Agent is able to put more effort on your property. If they have sole mandate they can get internal approvals for decent advertising in property newspapers, website photo's, showdays etc. as compared to spedning on a property that they dont have sole mandate.

On the other hand, estate agents are really struggling because there is not much buyers in the market, not many people putting properties for sale, hence they have to take whatever they get.

FYI - a qualified buyers know he is in demand right now, so get ready to see some ridiculous offers coming in.

Suggest letting your agent know not to even bother coming with offers below a certain amount.

 

[OMB]

One positive on a sole mandate is that the Agent is able to put more effort on your property. If they have sole mandate they can get internal approvals for decent advertising in property newspapers, website photo's, showdays etc. as compared to spending on a property that they dont have sole mandate.

FYI - a qualified buyers know he is in demand right now, so get ready to see some ridiculous offers coming in.

Suggest letting your agent know not to even bother coming with offers below a certain amount.

As an ex agent this for me states some of the main rationale for a sole mandate, agents often have a database of qualified buyers and know what the buyers are looking for, they can bring those parties in pretty quickly should the property meet the requirements of the buyers on their books, generally agents will work a lot harder on a property for which they have a sole mandate, I probably used to split my time about 80/20 between sole and open mandates.

Open mandates can just get messy and cause confusion not only between buyers but between agents as well, also agents can get unethical on open mandates because the contractual obligation is different, the sole mandate contract protects the seller as well as the agent, probably the seller even more these days with the CPA.

I have seen sellers loose out on getting a better price on a property because through open mandate agents will try and push through a deal quicker so they can get the sale rather than advising the seller effectively on how to obtain the optimum price.

Some agencies also have a track record of over pricing stock thus overstating the market, make sure you do your homework first, using databases like Lightstone etc

 

[AniV]

A family member of mine tried to sell their property. The first agent insisted on sole mandate. The agent put up signs on the front of the property and had 3 months' sole mandate.

They never brought a single potential buyer to see the property. After a month of absolutely nothing happening, my family member contacted the agent to ask what was going on. The agent said "Your place costs too much and people aren't interested. Nobody wants to look at your house." So she told the agent that if they had no intention of making a sale or even trying they would like to cancel the sole mandate and list with other agents. The agent refused.

There was nothing she could do. She would simply have to wait out the sole mandate period. About two months into the sole mandate, she came home to discover a competing agent had put up For Sale signs outside the house, on their gate and fence, without so much as speaking to her. We took the signs down.

Two weeks later she phoned the sole mandate agent and told her to come take down her sign as the property was no longer for sale. The next time we decide to sell, it's private all the way. Agents are just a nightmare to deal with. You're lucky if you get a good one.

 

[ice_cubes]

I had a sole mandate & the agent sold my house in 2 weeks. But thats because she already had a list of *prequalifying* customers & knew who wanted what type of property.

 

[Grimspoon]

Luckily I dont have a sole mandate on my property, but I have heard that the estate agent will tell you everything you want to hear until you sign that mandate.