On 11 Oct 2016 at 8:06am Curious househunter wrote:
Why are Cubitt & West so popular? Not a dig, just genuine interest. They pressurise people into taking financial services (someone told me they couldn't even view a house via them without being forced to see their mortgage advisor). They 'double dip' by charging buyer and seller fees - a practice that no other estate agent in Lewes does. I'm looking for a house to buy and it's annoying whenever a property comes up with them as I've heard so many poor reviews and would like to avoid them if possible. But they must offer something to attract so many vendors - what is it?
On 11 Oct 2016 at 8:20am Dave wrote:
I think it's the quality of their sales material. The photos they take are stunning and they have a much wider reach than some of the other Estate Agents in town who only deal with Lewes (and Brighton)
They also do sales days where they get a lot of potential buyers round on the same day rather than at various inconvenient times.
I would definitely use them again to sell a house.
On 11 Oct 2016 at 9:14am Me wrote:
Used them to sell my house. Wouldn't use them again. To buy or sell.
On 11 Oct 2016 at 9:29am Curious househunter wrote:
So I would think that any offer would be reduced to account for the 'buyer's fees' vendor loses, buyer possibly loses, big win for Cubitt and West who clean up with double dipping on the fees? I suppose good luck to them if they can get away with it, but just puzzled why people don't use one of the other agents in Lewes and keep the cash themselves....
On 11 Oct 2016 at 9:45am Local wrote:
Let me see - why do vendors use C&W? Perhaps because they charge buyers for part of their fee, so that they can offer a lower fee to vendors, which makes them more appealing than the rest of agents? Hardly 'kin rocket science, is it? FFS.
On 11 Oct 2016 at 9:58am Curious househunter wrote:
But vendors pay for the buyers fee by reduced offers on their properties to compensate. Presumably the selling fee is very low (0.25/0.5%?). 1% is freely available from other agents. I don't have any particular axe to grind, just trying to understand why people would use an agent that charges buyers fees when they surely must understand how this puts off the purchasers... Perhaps if you have a house that flies off the shelf, people won't care and pay up?
On 11 Oct 2016 at 1:55pm Under the hammer wrote:
Scumbags.
On 12 Oct 2016 at 10:25am Clifford Dann wrote:
Better than Clifford Dann who still took their cut even though we did the deal ourselves without their help.
On 13 Oct 2016 at 5:07am Really? wrote:
How did that work? How did they get paid when you didn't want them to? Or did you do the deal with someone you didn't know previously, but someone who was alerted by the marketing that your house was available?
I'm amazed at the number of people on here willing to slag off businesses for supposed illegality or unethical behaviour. (See Tallulah). We have laws, how is it that they don't help the deluded, self-righteous, anonymous rabble rousers on this forum? (Or are they making it up as they go along?)
On 13 Oct 2016 at 6:45am Curious Househunter wrote:
Nothing illegal about buyer's fees, although their ethics can (and are) being questioned. C&W receive very good reviews on their service but some reviews say 'they charge buyers fees which have to be taken account of in your offer' If the purchaser decides to drop their offer to accommodate the fees, the vendor will end up losing the equivalent of about 2% of their property value. So logical (to me anyhow) to go to an agent charging 1% (there are some good agents in Lewes IMO) and save yourself the money. As I've said before if you've a very attractive house, buyers may not discount their offer in which case they lose, C&W win, and the vendor may win as long as the sales % is less than 1%.
On 13 Oct 2016 at 9:02am Jonny wrote:
Read the small print and negotiate. If they want your business, they will negotiate.
Recently sold with a local agent. No buyers fees. If we had done a private sale, nothing to pay. 40% discount on their advertised sellers fees.
If you don't ask you don't get.