estate agents making money

steveroy

Has anyone come accross the same as i have when being quoted for the cost of selling your house. The estate agent in question told us that we stood a better chance of selling our house if we put a price range in. for instance £150k to £175k he assured us this would get us the best price. This seemed odd but he was the expert. We asked what his rate was and he stated very quickly his rate was 1.5% top rate fixed. When i asked for clarification he explained that this meant that we would be paying 1.5% on the top rate he wanted to put our house up for sale at, regardless of the actual price we sold it for. Rip off? I have seen more estate agents doing the same thing recently. Look for for the houses being sold with a price range and you will see who is being taken advantage of.

Premier_2

Walk away.

The best way to get the best out of your agent is to base their commission on the actual selling price they achieve of the property.

Any monkey could find a buyer for your property if they agreed to sell it for a quid, especially if by doing so they knew they would be pocketing over £2.5k!

EagerLearner

Agreed - what a rip off - he will sell it for the lowest price in the bracket to get the sale, then charge you the same as if he has sold it for top whack. Walk away.

phil_b_2

I've been looking at property for a long time and generally just skip on past the ones with a price range. I decide a house on the market at 150-175k is basically £150k, but the vendor wants you to think it's worth more and are getting a bargain at £150k. People arent stupid, and that tactic is old and annoying.
If it is anywhere close to 175k you wouldn't be even showing a 150k figure.

The best that you can do is to price your property alongside the cheapest similar proprty within a half mile radius, perhaps a little lower even. Can't offer better than that.

LisaLou1982

Im an estate agent and we seem to have been getting a tough time recently from posted on this forum.
The reason you will have been given a price range is due to properties currently on the market in that price range. The EA should have shown you comparibles of prices currently being marketed at, and prices currently achieved so that you can see why you should be advertising your house at X price.
Unfortunately, i often come across other EA's who are in and out of a property in minutes, give a price, quote their fee and leave. The other side of the coin is that even in the market we are in today, there are people who think that whilst everything else has dropped in value, their house is still the same price it was last year.
The fixed fee is based upon marketing price- if the agent recommended an asking price of £100k (and showed you why you should do this) and you decided you wanted to put it on higher - say £120k (this is not unusual!!!) then the fee they charge is based upon having to do extra work to try and get people through your door at a higher price.

It is in my experience that those who moan that the EA either 1. isnt working hard enough, 2. are trying to get them to accept lower offers are often quick to forget the prices that they were originally quoted.

Go with the agent that you feel will do the best job for you. Not all of the time, but most of the time, you get what you pay for!

All the best with your sale! )

Premier_2

Walk away from any agent that charges a different percentage based on asking price, achievable price, whatever price.

There's plenty of EA's out there who will offer to sell your property at a fixed percentage of the achieved selling price. The higher they sell at, the more commission they earn anyway - if they expect to load it even more makes no sense whatseover. I wonder if LisaLou1982 offers a discount on the percentage fees of that £100K property if she can only find a genuine buyer who is prepared to offer £95k?

LisaLou1982

Premier wrote: »

Walk away from any agent that charges a different percentage based on asking price, achievable price, whatever price.

There's plenty of EA's out there who will offer to sell your property at a fixed percentage of the achieved selling price. The higher they sell at, the more commission they earn anyway - if they expect to load it even more makes no sense whatseover. I wonder if LisaLou1982 offers a discount on the percentage fees of that £100K property if she can only find a genuine buyer who is prepared to offer £95k?

I dont charge percentage fees - havent done this for over 3 yrs!! However, i have set a reduced fee if a property is sold below a certain price
Although it may seem that agents get a lot of money for selling properties, the actual costs of running an estate agency are higher than many people could even dream of. Everyones wages need to be paid at the end of the day and noone can ever guarantee what someone will pay for a property. Afterall, a house (and everything else for that matter!) is only worth what someone will pay for it!!

Rick62

If you agree that a property is only worth what someone will pay then how do you justify charging an agents fee based on top asking price?

Ridiculous.

ad44downey

Estate Agents - These slimeballs will try any cheap trick to save their scrawny necks.

Gorgeous_George

Can we please be nice to all Moneysavers - including Estate Agents. Nobody is forced to use their services.

Maybe if the agents had said the fee was 1.75% of the lower figure, the OP would have been happier. Or maybe the complaint would have been that the fee %age was too high.

Maybe you should consider their offer to sell for 1.5% of the higher figure and respond with an offer of your own. Negotiation is a two-way street. I'd expect them to be keen to get your home on their books considering the current market.

BTW, sounds like Countrywide. There is, of course, no rip-off as the fees are quite clear. If the house was in a bidding war and sold for £200K, you'd be quids in!

GG