FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How does it work?

You will create an advert of your property on our easy to use step by step system, and pay a one off fee. Alternative Sale will then take care of the marketing. To create an advert, you will need to take photographs, write a description, set a price, handle all enquires, arrange viewings and negotiate with potential buyers. Alternative Sale has created a Sellers guide to further assist you.

What is included?

Full Page Listing

Upload up to 8 photographs

For sale/To Let board delivered and ERECTED with a telephone number of your choice.

Hits counter

Your own administration area, to edit your advert 24 hours per day, and a hits counter to monitor interest.

Inclusion with the leading property portal fish4homes, who are one of the best known advertising brands, and are owned by three of the largest regional and national newspapers in the UK – Newsquest Media Group, Trinity Mirror and Guardian Media Group. The UK’s largest classified website for jobs, homes and cars with over 4 million unique users per month, and over 7,000 estate agents advertising properties on the site. In addition Fish4 provide the property search for over 250 regional and local newspaper websites.

CAN I USE AN ESTATE AGENT AT THE SAME TIME?

It is your prerogative to use an agent or not as you wish and you are free to use an agent and to simultaneously advertise privately but you need to be aware of the legalities of any agreement you sign with the Agent.

Agents can have one of four different types of agreement with sellers. These are:

‘Sole selling’

This agreement means your estate agent is the only legal entity with the right to sell your house. If you find a buyer yourself, you’ll still have to pay the agent. Even if you do not decide to sell your property privately this is an unwise choice as it means you would have to pay this agent even if they do not perform and the property is sold through another agent. You would have to pay TWO commissions!

‘Sole agency’

This (more common) agreement also means the estate agent is the only agency with the right to sell your house but if you find a buyer yourself, you won’t have to pay the agent. It just means that you are agreeing to use only that one particular agency. Your estate agent can only claim a commission if they introduce the buyer and sell your property. Be aware though that if you instruct another agent for any reason such as non-performance of the first agent you need to formally end the prior agreement because the first agent can still claim a commission if another agent is instructed during the period of sole agency and the second agent then subsequently sells your property. Two commissions again! Most importantly a ‘sole agency’ agreement does not prevent you from selling your home privately as long as any other sale does not involve you (or other persons acting on your behalf) acting as an estate agent as defined by the OFT.

‘Multi agency’

A multi-agency agreements means that you are free to choose several estate agents to sell your house simultaneously if you wish but you only have to pay commission to the one who sells it.

‘Ready, willing and able purchaser’

A ‘Ready, willing and able purchaser’ or ‘Ready, willing and able to buy’ agreement allows the estate agent to charge commission if they introduce someone “ready, willing and able to buy” your home. A ‘Ready, willing and able purchaser’ is a form of contract between you and the agent whereby if the estate agent finds you a buyer “ready, willing and able” to buy your property and in a position to enter into an immediate sale agreement you must pay the commission or fee regardless of the outcome. Under this agreement if a sale does not go through for any reason the estate agent is still able to claim commission regardless once they have introduced a prospective purchaser who is prepared and able to buy your property and is able to exchange unconditional contracts. If you later withdraw from the sale you still have to pay the agent. Sometimes this clause is found in a place in the agreement you would not expect to look such as in the section describing when commission is payable. The Consumers Association strongly recommend that you do not sign any contract containing the ‘Ready, willing and able purchaser’ clause or other wording with the same meaning. Remember, you still have to pay even if you withdraw from the sale or it falls through and unconditional contracts are not exchanged.

 In summary, you should always check what sort of agreement an agent is offering before signing with them if you have any thoughts of selling privately. Most people sign ‘Sole Agency’ or ‘Multiple Agency’ agreement. Both of these allow you to sell privately and if you sell privately then you do not have to pay any agency commission. If you have signed a ‘Sole Selling’ agreement then you will not have the freedom to sell privately. You may advertise the property alongside the agent but the agent gets the commission come what may. Check your agreement.
‘Sole selling’ Agency commissions will be payable:

• If Contracts were exchanged during the agreement period
• Regardless of who actually found the buyer
• If the Buyer was introduced during the agreement period or
Negotiations were undertaken by your agent during the agreement period

 ‘Sole agency’ commissions will be payable if:

• Contracts were exchanged during the agreement period and
• The Buyer was introduced by estate agent and
• The Sale was made during the agreement period or
• Negotiations were undertaken during agreement period or
• Buyer was introduced by another agent during the agreement period
 

Most Private property Sale sites take care not to act in such a way as to conflict with a ‘sole agency’ agreement and therefore you are free to use Private Sales Websites even if you have signed this sort of agreement with an agent. In some cases the very mention of a private sales effort is enough to dramatically motivate the agent! It may help to motivate them more if you remind them that if a new buyer comes through the website then you will not pay them commission.

 

HOW LONG WILL MY PROPERTY REMAIN LISTED?

Your property will remain listed until you tell us to remove it. If however we have not heard from you in 12 months, we will contact you to ask if you still need your property to be listed with us? If we are unable to contact you we may remove the advertisement from our website.

ARE THERE ANY HIDDEN COSTS?

No, you pay a one off fee to market your property; there will be nothing further to pay.

DO YOU COVER ALL AREAS OF THE UK?

Yes, Alternative Sale sell’s property all over the UK.

ANY DISCOUNT FOR ADVERTISING MORE THAN ONE PROPERTY?

Alternative Sale offer a discount to anyone with more than one property to advertise for sale/to let, for more information and a quote, please email us using the link below.

ARE MY PERSONAL DETAILS SECURE?

We strive to ensure the security, integrity and privacy of personal information submitted to our site, and we review and update our security measures in light of current technologies. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure. However, we will endeavor to take all reasonable steps to protect the personal information you may transmit to us or from our online products and services. Once we do receive your transmission, we will also use all reasonable endeavors to ensure its security on our systems. At no point is any of your financial information, such as credit or debit card details stored on our systems.

In addition, our employees and the contractors who provide services related to our information systems are obliged to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by us. However, we are not responsible for events arising from unauthorised access to your personal information. 

We will endeavor to take all reasonable steps to keep accurate and up to date any information which we hold about you. If, at any time, you discover that information held about you is incorrect, you should contact us to have the information corrected.

I NEED TO SELL QUICKLY CAN YOU HELP?

Alternative Sale can put you in touch with a cash buyer, please note that as a cash buyer, they will look to offer below the market value, this usually equates to around 80% of the current market value of your home, but does depend on many factors. If you would like to receive a no obligations offer, then please contact us using the link below.

When will my property appear on Alternative Sale website and Fish4Homes?

As soon as you make payment, your property advert will be sent to Alternative Sale’s administration, it will be checked and if it complies with our terms and conditions it will appear on the site within 12 hours. Your property advert will then be uploaded onto Fish4homes within 48 hours. If you have chosen to register with Swap-homes to maximise your properties potential, then your property will appear on their website within 48 hours.

If your question is not covered here, then please email info@alternativesale.co.uk.