Estate Agent not negotiating on fee.

cruella_de_vile

Well, we have had a couple of estate agents round today and they both said they were unable to negotiate on the fee, (both are 1.5% + vat) they said this is due to the current climate - they are having to work harder to make a sale!

Should I try again or just accept it now they have said they can't negotiate? We are fairly limited with the amount of agents we could use, there just aren't that many in the area.

lincroft1710

Can see one aspect of their logic: if a yr ago your house was worth £200K and fees were 1.25% then they'd get £2.5K, if house now worth £160K and fees 1.5% they'd get £2.4K. Nothing to stop you going to one agent and saying you do prefer them but unless they can come down you will be forced to go elsewhere.

cruella_de_vile

I was so pleased with myself trying to negotiate the fee, I get stupidly embarrassed when asking for money off/discounts etc

I think I will go back to them in the next day or so and see what they say, thanks.

napoleon

I hope you gave them a nice cup of tea. The vultures are having a tough time of it lately and a little kindness goes a long way.

cruella_de_vile

napoleon wrote: »

I hope you gave them a nice cup of tea. The vultures are having a tough time of it lately and a little kindness goes a long way.

Of course I did!

chickmug

As an EA I have a duty to keep the business going, keep staff employed and ensure we are able to do what we have to with the marketing of each property. In my case year on year review the rates and I feel our rates are fair, not the lowest but reflecting reality as to the amount of advertising that can be done.

I don't negotiate as I feel it is not right to act at differing rates for differing people some of which may know each other and feel angry if we are doing a lower rate for their friends, neighbour, etc.

I never drop my commission, or reduce my minimum period of SSR because every new property has start up costs. Each property, taken on, as an independent, is a calculated risk for me. Am I prepared to invest the sort of energy and money and will I get a return. I only ever act as Sole Selling Rights because my friends, who don't, get badly p-issed about by those seeking to cut out their commission by saying they have found a private buyer.

So an insight into an agent?

lincroft1710

Chickmug - understand your point of view and cannot argue with it. However I personally would not be too happy with SSR contract - but no doubt most people don't realise its significance.

chickmug

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Chickmug - understand your point of view and cannot argue with it. However I personally would not be too happy with SSR contract - but no doubt most people don't realise its significance.

A difficult one because I agree with most on the forum that EA's are not always to be trusted. I would like to think we have more integrity than some of the tow rags I read about on the forum. For my firm a repeat/recommendation rate of around 65% last year speaks for itself.

From our point of view sellers increasingly try and shaft us -- not the other way around. So I took the decision some years ago only to operate on SSR basis and with a decent minimum period and not to haggle the rates.

Our terms are in plain English and we never ask anyone to sign on the spot and if there is anything they don't like we alter it. I am always saying, when pitching for business, we will stand at the side of our seller clients and do for them what we would wish done for us if we were in their shoes.

We are not perfect - we can't buck a bad market but back to the original point there is no way we are giving sellers the temptation to cut us out by not doing SSR. We do incur significant time and money costs in the first few weeks and want a decent chance to recoup our outlay

jamie304

Why not suggest a reduced rate if the sale price is less than or equal to the target price, but an increased rate if it is above?

bdon

What's ridiculous of course is that they work on percentages. Marketing a house at 350k is no more difficult than marketing one at 150k but they cream so much more off the higher value.

Leeches though they are, I doubt that you'll get better than 1.5% but insist on LOTS of photgraphs (good ones), floor plans, PDF, etc.

Don't let them get away with one scabby photo taken on their mobile phone and some cursory details.

bookduck

chickmug, a quick question or few then. Has your agency put up its fee since the market has become stagnant? How much is your fee? - I do not think any of us know you, so feel free to sill the beans. How long do you tie people into an SSR? Who long these day is it taking to sell the average house and how long did it take before? - I'm just nosey? Ta.