Typical estate agent commission

Bungly_2

Hi

I'm planning to put my house on the market in the next couple of weeks. Any ideas of the current levels of commission being asked for?

I expect the house is worth around £350,000. I don't know if I could face paying over £5000!

Thanks

QTPie

Ours is 1.6% (so on a £350k house that is £5600). We had three quotes and the quotes varied from 1.5 to 1.75%.

You could try negotiating with the Estate Agent: don't know if that would work.

Otherwise you could look at marketing the property yourself.

Personally I have NOT had good experiences with our estate agent (wont go into details, but apart from the marheting they are more like a "chocolate teapot"). Too much hassle to change now (and don't want to tied into another 12 week contract) + they are probably all as bad as each other... :rolleyes:

BUT I don't think that I would like to market a property myself... not sure it would get the exposure - could be very wrong...

Edited to add... although we did sell our last house without an estate agent: the neighbour had said (long before we wanted to move) that they wanted to buy our mews house and knock through. We agreed a private sale with them - stunning good luck (wish it would happen again!)

QT

nervousmother

Look at a agent who charges a one off up front fee then does all the marketing on your property internet based. You will still have a for sale sign up, can cost as little as £200 if im right, try www.sellandsave.com

PasturesNew

Don't forget, it'll be PLUS VAT too.

1.5%, plus VAT, is what I was charged: £3930 + £687.75 = £4617.75
(obviously not a £350k house)
On £350k, that'd be: £6168

QTPie

PasturesNew wrote: »

Don't forget, it'll be PLUS VAT too.

1.5%, plus VAT, is what I was charged: £3930 + £687.75 = £4617.75
(obviously not a £350k house)
On £350k, that'd be: £6168

Doh! Yes, I kept thinking "+ VAT", but forgot to add it to the figures...

It is a lot of money and mine certainly doesn't earn it: she gives the impression of "no nonsense", but let me down quite badly twice :rolleyes:

QT

PasturesNew

Somewhere on this site, there's an article about knocking down the price... although that will only work in some areas, not all... certainly where I lived none of them budged of price. They seemed to have all agreed between themselves to not discount it, keeping it high.

Floxxie

Bungly wrote: »

Hi

I'm planning to put my house on the market in the next couple of weeks. Any ideas of the current levels of commission being asked for?

I expect the house is worth around £350,000. I don't know if I could face paying over £5000!

Thanks

Try selling it yourself. There aren't the volume for buyers that there once were so suggesting that an estate has greater exposure just doesn't wear in this climate. If your propert is not openly visible to passing traffic try advertising in local shops and papers.

If you are concerned about dealing with the buyer after a sale is agreed, you can ask an estate agent to act as your sales progressor and agree a fee of a few hundred pounds. The advantage to this is if you use a good experienced sales progressor, you can get on with moving and they will do the chasing for you. (And before anybody comments how easy it is to do this yourself - yes it is, if it is straightforward but again I wouldn't risk it having dealt with hundreds of not-easy chains)

Floxxie

QTPie

Floxxie wrote: »

The advantage to this is if you use a good experienced sales progressor, you can get on with moving and they will do the chasing for you. (And before anybody comments how easy it is to do this yourself - yes it is, if it is straightforward but again I wouldn't risk it having dealt with hundreds of not-easy chains)

Baring in mind that not all estate agents seem to be able to progress sales (gggggrrrrrrrr!!!!), you might be better off doing this. Still, how you find one, I don't know... :rolleyes:

QT

busydaffodil1

I have never paid more than 1%

Floxxie

QTPie wrote: »

Baring in mind that not all estate agents seem to be able to progress sales (gggggrrrrrrrr!!!!), you might be better off doing this. Still, how you find one, I don't know... :rolleyes:

QT

You might not be able to. If there are only two of you in the chain then it is a case of making sure that the solicitors/conveyancers 'talk' to each other. If there is a longer chain, you will come across hurdles from other agents not disclosing info and not having the legal contacts which experienced sales progressors do have to find out problems etc.

Agree that not all estate agents can progress adequately but often that is down to others actions/inactions - the estate agent can only try and push things; they are not the buying/selling, conveyancing, surveyor or finance party.

How to find one - either an agent you have used in the past, one that was recommended to you, one that advertises their sales progression team. I have dealt with a handful of cases that were sales-progression only - often being people who were originally on the market with the EA and then sold privately to a party which the EA was aware of at the start of the contract.

Floxxie

Bungly_2

Many thanks for all the replies. I have the first agent around today (if they make it through the snow) so it should be interesting!