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Advice on negotiating estate agents' fees
BusyLizzie_3
Posts: 159 Forumite
We are hoping to put our house on the market shortly and have had three valuations from three local estate agents. We haven't got down to brass tacks of discussing fees with any of them yet, but one mentioned in passing a starting figure of 2% and another mentioned 1.3%. The advice to sellers thread suggests aiming for 1% - has anyone been able to negotiate 1% with their agent recently? Is there any advantage to negotiating a fixed price rather than a percentage? Any tips on how to approach this would be gratefully received.
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We were advised by Garrington Homefinders (the company owned by Phil Spencer) to just be really upfront: we've invited six agents round, we want to minimise our costs, what can you do better than the other five on the commission figures?
Garrington told us to incentivise too, to encourage the agents to fight for the sale; we agreed 1% commission up to and including the minimum price we'd accept; then something like 20% of everything from that to asking; then something like 50% of anything over asking (sorry, can't remember exact figures).
The only agents who wouldn't play ball with our suggestion were Douglas & Gordon - either they didn't want to or the head office wouldn't let them. One agent even told us it was a really fun idea:p
BTW, perhaps stating the obvious here but don't forget you have to pay VAT on top. We did forget initially, and the shock of the re-calculations was eye-watering.0 -
The best way I have found to negotiate with an EA is to be upfront with them and be polite. Over the years I've had people demanding all sorts of reductions in the fee, with take it or leave it attitudes, I tend to leave it. If someone is polite & courteous to me, I am more inclined to negotiate a reduction.0
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We sold last July and negotiated 1%, including all viewings, simply by saying that Agent X had already offered to do it for that (which was true.) Our chosen agent managed to pick up another 4 sales - people who were keen to buy our property, but 'stuck' with no sale - so they did OK. Ironically, we eventually sold to someone out of the area.
We are now on the market with a property in a different location. Here, despite lots of haggling, the best we could achieve was 1.25%, though there was another agent we didn't like who offered to go to 1%. This time, saying we might go with him didn't work, but we still achieved a reduction on the opening percentage - sorry, can't remember what it was though.0
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