Estate Agents Fees

Pupster

Martin says we should shop around for an estate agent that charges 1% (and haggle).....does anyone know of any..... apart from the web based ones? Thanks. :rolleyes:

Doozergirl

Virtually all my local agents can easily be knocked down to 1% with the exception of those that like to specialise in the more prestigious home. We can get to 1.25 or 1.35% with them even. Seems it can be harder to knock down agents in other parts of the country though.

Where are you? Maybe someone can recommend?

Pupster

West Yorkshire...Wakefield/Leeds....

lush_walrus

Try the independant estate agents, they are always more competitive as they dont have the corporate brand to hide behind and do not have their hands tied by area managers etc.

The best way if you have time is to get all of the EAs around to value, and try to haggle there and then. If you are very good at haggling you will manage to get multi agency reduced to that too.

Also you stand in the best position of haggling if your property is very saleable. IF its easy to sell, then the EAs have to advertise it less, show less people around etc etc and therefore have less overheads to get your property to sell.

But the most important thing with selling your house is to go with the EA you feel most comfortable with, as its all very well and good negotiating fees, but if the EA is as good as useless your property will never sell and therefore fees will never become an option anyway. So go with your instincts when you meet them and haggle the most with the one you feel confident with.

Doozergirl

Lush is right about the big chains. They are more expensive, less flexible and I avoid them as (!sweeping generalisation warning!) I find the service from independents to be superior. They have a real financial interest in their own company and, therefore, better motivation.

Pupster

Thanks for that......nor sure who the independant ones are ....would you be allowed to name any please??

Doozergirl

Can't help specifically. They would be unique to your your area, with only a handful of branches

JUSTICE4ALLCONSUMERS

Hello,
I am no expert on my titled suggestion,but the savings would/could be MASSIVE.Lets ask ourselves afew basic questions:

What do estate agents do to warrent the high fees we pay them?

Well first and foremost,they have a list of potential clients that may want to purchase your property- maybe not...?

Once a potential buyer is found,they do there utmost to secure the highest price for the seller-maybe not...?

They keep you informed of how the sale is going...but to be truthful,it's the Conveyencer that will be updating them on how the sale is going...!

I have not asked many questions,but already a pattern of doubtful answers are forming.

Not all of us may be bothered about saving several thousand pounds in estate agents fees (I know I would be)....

So how difficult would it be to market your own property?

How much would it cost to have an advert in your local paper?

Surely you would know the pros and cons of your own property?

Maybe the fact that you could market the property knowing you have more leaway with the asking price (as you would have no estate agents fees in the equation).This would surely be desirable to any potential buyer?

Anyway I hope I have give you all something to contemplate.

Thankyou

afinn

Why wouldn't an agent want to get the best price possible and secure the best buyer. Surely the better the price they get, the more commission they earn. If they secure a good buyer the sale is more likely to complete.

The Conveyancer can keep in touch with the conveyancers for his clients purchaser and vendor but he cannot check thier mortgage situation and he cannot check the rest of the chain. A good agent will do this for you before you accept any offers. It is no good accepting an offer only to find out weeks later than either your buyer or maybe even their buyer cannot secure the mortgage they thought they could.

If an agent does their job properly it does not stop when an offer is agreed, they will make sure that everything runs smoothly up to completion and that even includes making sure the conveyancer is doing his/her job properly because they can cause more problems with a sale by not getting things done when they should than anyone.

Something else to contemplate

JUSTICE4ALLCONSUMERS

Conveyencers or their secretaries can get all checks done,it does not take an estate agent to get this information.As far as getting the best price-

Well that would be in their interest to do that,but I am sure they would be as happy just securing the deal in my opinion.

Thankyou

kazzy

we have just had our house valued and every agent(all 3) were happy to market at 1%.If they wouldn't,I wouldn't go with them.Always haggle with them.They want to sell your property more than you want to sign them up.Luckily in this area we have many to choose from.
I would happily market my house privately..the only downside being that of course you might get some weirdo coming around just to snoop in your house or 'potential' burglars having a good look at what they could nick.