As an online auction company, we are passionate about providing a fresh approach to one of the oldest professions in the world. We take pride in exceeding expectations and going above and beyond to get the best results for our clients. To achieve this, we work with trusted estate agents to maximise the marketing of our lots to generate as much interest as possible and to drive the highest sale price.

We have seen first-hand the positive influence a good auction house and estate agent partnership can have on a sale and because of this, strongly believe that it’s time to end exclusive partner agreements between auction houses and estate agents.

These outdated partner agreements are resulting in lost business for estate agents as well as a lack of choice for property sellers.

The agreements restrict estate agencies from working with any auction houses except the one they are in a contract with. This means that if another auction house contacts the estate agent to work together on the sale of a property, they are having to turn down this work and losing out on potentially thousands of pounds in lost fees.

In many cases, estate agents are unaware what the contract means due to not reading the fine print and therefore not fully understanding the ramifications of the contract. Often, these contracts are an initial 12-month period before automatically going onto on a rolling term. These terms mean that several estate agents are in contract without even realising so until an opportunity arises with another auction house. Those who break the contract risk paying a fine that is typically a percentage of the fee they would have earnt from the property sale.

In addition to this, many estate agencies signed this contract many years ago and have never had the opportunity to work with the auction house. On these occasions, estate agents are losing out on a fee and the opportunity to work with a new auction house due to a partnership that does not yet exist and has not been tried or tested.

To ask an estate agent to sign an exclusive agreement with an auction house is comparable to signing one with a solicitor or mortgage broker. This would not happen due to the estate agencies limiting themselves in terms of opportunities and therefore, the same should apply with auction house partner contracts.

The property industry is all about maximising opportunity for the seller who should have a full choice on who their property is sold via. Auction house partner contracts take away this freedom and choice for the seller who may have a particular chosen auction house, and estate agent, whom they want to work together to achieve the desired result.