What if I am on the market with an estate agent and have a 'sole agency contract or a 'multi-agency contract'?

A sole agency contract means that your estate agent is entitled to commission ONLY if they introduce your buyer and bring about the sale of your property, or if another estate agent sells the property during that period of the sole agency term.

A multi-agency contract means that there are two or more agents trying to sell your property, and you pay commission to the one that succeeds in getting you a sale.

Nearly all sole and multi agency contracts do NOT prevent property owners from advertising their property privately, either using newspaper advertising or online internet advertising.

If you want to use an estate agent as well as a private advertising campaign, then you can.

You should NOT incur any agency fees if you find your buyer by private treaty and introduce them to your property yourself.

To avoid any problems with your estate agent, make sure that you read your sole agency contract thoroughly. We recommend that you ask your solicitor to check any contract before signing an agreement.

If you have any doubt then ask your solicitor to change anything in the terms that you don't agree with. In the majority of cases this wont be necessary. You do not have to accept the standard terms of contract that are provided by the agent.

Wightfrog.com is an advertising portal for property owners to advertise their properties for sale or rent privately.