Real Estate Agents in UK?

Question

Here in the US both the buyer and the seller each have an agent, does it work that way in the UK? Or is it just the seller that has an agent? I am not trying to come acrossed as simple, I have heard that only the seller has representation & want to know if this is true or false.

Answer 1

In the UK, if you want to sell your house you usually get an agent to value it, draw up a contract, agree a fee etc. The agent is acting on behalf of the SELLER and will act in their best interests (ie, to get the best price from the most reliable buyer).
BUYERS do not have an agent representing them. Most people who are looking to buy a house will visit or phone lots of agents in the area and register their interest in buying. They will leave details of the sort of house they want, how much they want to pay, and their position (eg, house to sell, cash purchase, etc)
When a buyer sees a house they like, they will make an offer and it's up to the buyer, guided by the agent, to decide whether to accept or not.
When a sale is agreed, most agents will want to check that the buyer can indeed afford the house, either by speaking to their mortgage (home loan) arranger or getting them to come in and speak to the company's in-house advisor. There was a time when agents wouldn't sell to you unless you did your loan through their own advisor but this practise is now outlawed although I know of a few agents who try to do it!
After that, both sides take on a conveyancing solicitor and the legalities begin. Most agents will keep in regular contact to ensure the sale reaches a successful conclusion.

Answer 2

The buyer does not necessarily have an agent (here we just call them estate agents) but if they do buy the house they will have a solicitor/representative, and usually the estate agent will deal with the buyer and pass information onto the seller, the buyer doesn't normally have contact with the seller

90% of people selling their house do so via an estate agent, so the people selling the house will have an estate agent to represent them

i think in 99% of cases both the buyer & the seller will have a solicitor that will communicate via each other then the solicitors will relay information back to the individual.

Buyers over here tend only to deal with an agent from the particular company they are buying the house from, they might be selling their house with company A but company A will only deal with the selling of their house not the buying of the house from company B and Company B will only really deal with the buying of their clients house, the two rarely mix, unless you buy & sell from the same estate agent!

Answer 3

In the UK the agent acts for both buyer and seller but both parties also have solicitors (or attorneys if you are american) who deal with the legal side of things. The estate agent basically only handles the negotiation of the sale and all the legal bit is dealt with by the solicitors. In Spain it's different again. The estate agent (imobliario) acts for both parties and does all the legal paper work though the final sale is handled by a notary with all parties present, no solicitor (abogada) is necessary.

Answer 4

It's much the same, in actual fact. The estate agent acts as the mediator between the owner and the seller. I remember when I met an estate agent for the first time, David Gauntlet, from dg Property Consultants, and he went through it all with me step-by-step...

Answer 5

It is true that the buyer does not need to have an agent, however they will have to instate a solicitor or conveyancer

Answer 6

I believe SteveB, no longer basically the spanish sources yet Portuguese additionally. The "brit overseas" has been concentrated by utilising rogues in the two those worldwide places, regrettably maximum of them are Brits themselves.