12% Estate Agent fee's? Can that be right?

chrispyphillips

Okay, I know that the economic climate is pretty apalling at the moment, and estate agents must too be feeling the squeeze. Whereas there are always houses to be sold, the apathy for the market and amount of people being refused mortgages must go some way at hitting the agents pockets.

That said I was quoted by a local independant agent this morning that their fee's were 12%!!! :eek: If I were selling for £130,000, they would take £15,600!! That to me just seems like daylight robbery!

Is this normal in todays climate, or should we still really be looking at about 1.5-2.5%?!

bubblesmoney

maybe they are copying the usa estate agent model. was discussing this the other day when i was shocked to hear that in usa many agents charge upwards of 6-8% on a sale. and some one i kno couldnt find anyone willing to do less than that and that they ask from buyers !!! dont know what they ask from sellers. dont know if thats the norm there though.

justbiteme2k

I think that's outrageous!
It's not even as if that useless bunch of **** are qualified at anything!
Register with an online agency that simply advertise your house like on eBay

Ian_Griffiths_Halifax

Are you certain it wasn't 1.2%. 12% is laughable. They wouldn't be in business long. How many people would be stupid enough to sell a house through an unqualifed ex-double glazing/ex-used car salesman and pay 12%:rotfl:

bubblesmoney

if the 12% wasnt mentioned verbally and it was just by email or in a flier. then maybe it was just a typo error. maybe they meant 1-2%. worth clarifying this. or maybe it was a newbie secretarial staff employed by them who misread the 1-2% as 12%

Premier_2

Was it a misprint? 1.2% would be much more realistic for a sole agency agreement to sell.

Or did the EA misunderstand you? 12% sounds like a typical charge for a fully managed letting agreement.

Doozergirl

Premier wrote: »

Or did the EA misunderstand you? 12% sounds like a typical charge for a fully managed letting agreement.

That's what I was going to say.

chrispyphillips

I'm glad your all shocked! It was in a conversation so no miss-print, she casually put her card on the table and said "Our fee is 12%" to which I nearly died!!!

I have another one coming this afternoon, I'll check to compare them both (although wont let on what the other one is obviously ) and maybe call this agents to see if it were an error.

Premier wrote:

Or did the EA misunderstand you? 12% sounds like a typical charge for a fully managed letting agreement.

We were discussing buy to let, but we never said that it was an option for us, so if she assumed thats what we were asking I'd be surprised at her giving us that price.

We're gonna get a rango of agents after this. We were hoping to go with these people, as its a family run business and they all know the area as they all live in it, but if that is their price they can keep it! Its ludicrous!

I'll keep people posted about this, quite happy to see its got some reaction!

PasturesNew

Were they a particularly specialist agent working with high end customers only or something?
Some reason they're not run-of-the-mill?
Who are they?

MissMoneypenny

We have lots of EAs near us and they must be feeling the pinch with so many For Sale boards and To Let boards around.

One has just tried to get ahead of the others by are posting cards through doors offering "we will beat any fee for selling" and "Free management and rent guarantee insurance for all new landlords".

jimc_2

I just cannot believe 12% especially for a UK Estate Agent.

It is true that in the USA fees of 6% and up are the norm, but the difference is that they WORK for it. US Estate Agents (or Realtors) will take the sale personally and do all the work to make the house stand out - down to cleaning and tidying before viewings. Even simple repairs and 'House doctoring' is taken as read.

They also bust a gut to get the property noticed. No simple newspaper or window adverts and then wait for the punters. Good ones will do anything to get viewings. I remember in Houston seeing a scantily dressed 'cowgirl' (Sexist I know - but I'm only reporting it as it was!) patrolling the traffic lights on the main 6-lane highway route out of town to (posh) suburbia with a huge placard and flyers! She got a lot of attention! And that was for just one property.

I think the real difference is that good US Realtors take each sale personally. It's not "Danny, its property 529 calling again to see what's happening. What shall I tell him? Did we ever get round to putting his Rightmove listing up? Any idea what we last said to him? How do I get rid of him?"

Worth 6%? Lots of Americans would agree. Anyone practicing the UK model would go bust overnight in the USA.