My parents recently had a very bad experience with Sawyer and Co. Having made the decision to relocate to Hove and sell the family home of over thirty years they were delighted to have an offer accepted on a property via Sawyer and Co after a long search during which they had been outbid several times. They were then deeply upset to have that reneged on the following week, and told a better offer had come in. We understand that gazumping does happen sometimes, but we got the strong impression that Sawyer and Co allowed the offer to be accepted (and had commenced conversations around legal next steps) while also using it in tandem to continue to work behind the scenes to drum up more interest, in a way that felt unethical to us. Given they were aware they were dealing with buyers nervous about making a big later-in-life move, and with a number of health issues, at the very least we felt that they demonstrated a lack of concern for the wellbeing of the house buyers they deal with. We bought in Hove several years ago through another agency and had a much smoother experience and our dealings with Sawyer and Co. left us feeling that they don’t operate to the standards of transparency that one would hope for when entering into such significant transaction.