Estate agent ultimatum

rassic

Dear all,

First ever post on MSE. My flat has been up for sale for over 6 weeks and we have had just 3 potential buyers so date, you might think I am being impatient but other identical flats within the same block have sold with a week or 2 of going on the market and I feel my flat has more plus points than the others such as parking, off the main roads etc.

The flat is in the city of Glasgow so at present it is priced Offers Over but, tomorrow I am now going to move it to fixed price to encourage more interest. I don't feel the estate agent has generated enough interest and thinking of setting some stipulation as they take 1%+VAT and £300 fees.

Please can anyone suggest any conditions I could set the estate agent once I go to fix price (their suggestion)? Also, if I go my separate ways at any time how much should I offer them if the property is still not sold?

Many thanks for taking the time to read my post
Rassic

AndrewSmith

Hi,

In the last 10 years or so I have had huge dealings with agents from both the selling and buying point of view.

Estate agents do a tough job with a lot of their work going unthanked and indeed unrecognised, however you doo need to offer them some kind of incentive to sell your property quickly.

Something I have done and suggested others do is this:

Negotiate a sliding fee structure with your agent thus, if you get an offer within the first, say, 4 weeks, you pay him 1.5%. Weeks 4-6 it drops to 1%, weeks 6-8 0.8%. After 8 weeks you want to be free to use a different agent without tie in from him.

I have found that in around 80% of cases this works wonders.