helping dad to sell his house

ragjoy

hi all,
dad has had haarts around today (im in a different county so could not be there) they are asking for 2% i thought they should getting 1% seeing as it will be a sole agent am i right?
with regard to the HIP they want £390 i said do it online via hips4u or similar,can someone explain the best way to get HIP ie if he gets his own it will be his and if we wanted to we could market ourselves.
when you do a online HIP how do they do Energy Performance Certificate? or dont you need that part legally.
any other advice will be great.
thanks in advance ragjoy............

pawpurrs

Most agents are not offering 1% commision rates at the moment, but try and negotiate the fee down.
Regarding the hip, you order it online, but they still have to come out to you to do it.

david29dpo

£390 is very expensive. Order online. An EPC inspector will visit the house and yes, the HIP will be yours if you change agents or decide to market yourself.

ragjoy

thank you for your replies so far,should i negotiate with any EAs on behalf of dad and is there any legal implications i should know about.
what clauses or tie ins should i insist on having in or out of the contract with any EA,i dont want locking in to EA who just wants another property that he might sell so if there not doing there job i want to be able to get rid of them asap.
i dont understand and never have where the EA charges 2% of a 400k sale and also charges the same on a 200k house they do the same work on both.
if i do an online HIP how quick will an agent put it up for sale,i ask this as it seems since april 6th you cant put it up for sale untill the HIP is in in place is this totally true or are the EAs just trying to mug you with there HIP at double the price.
thanks again ragjoy............

chickmug

ragjoy wrote: »

thank you for your replies so far,should i negotiate with any EAs on behalf of dad and is there any legal implications i should know about.
what clauses or tie ins should i insist on having in or out of the contract with any EA,i dont want locking in to EA who just wants another property that he might sell so if there not doing there job i want to be able to get rid of them asap.
i dont understand and never have where the EA charges 2% of a 400k sale and also charges the same on a 200k house they do the same work on both.
if i do an online HIP how quick will an agent put it up for sale,i ask this as it seems since april 6th you cant put it up for sale untill the HIP is in in place is this totally true or are the EAs just trying to mug you with there HIP at double the price.
thanks again ragjoy............

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1567371

Have a look at one of my past posts - it may help?

I am not sure what my commssion would be now if I were still running my old EA office but I had a minimum fee as well as a maximum fee as I totally agree with you that the work involved in selling a small house could be far greater than a big one.

I retired last year but never negotiated fees so am not surprised if you come across agents who will not budge. It isn't being awkward but in my case I felt an open fee structure was better for longer term goodwill. I didn't want someone finding out I had discounted for their mate and not for them because they never pushed it.

ragjoy

thanks chickmug, i will take a look at that thread.

Robert_Sterling

ragjoy wrote: »

i dont understand and never have where the EA charges 2% of a 400k sale and also charges the same on a 200k house they do the same work on both.

You never will understand it.
1.75% would be reasonable.

chickmug

Robert_Sterling wrote: »

You never will understand it.
1.75% would be reasonable.

As a past EA I NEVER understood it.

EA's will get away with what they can as many are greedy or too thick to realise that the same percentage rates, when houses have doubled in ten years, produces a lot higher fee income and for what. Even if you index link their costs they effectively were earning twice as much.

I really don't understand and when I used to try and discuss it with other agents they never saw the problem just too full of their self worth to see a fairer fee structure should have been in place. But I guess some of these guys will have been catching a cold?

ragjoy

does anyone have any opinions or experience of self marketing?
if so who can you recommend?by way of online.
ragjoy.....

SouthCoast

ragjoy wrote: »

does anyone have any opinions or experience of self marketing?
if so who can you recommend?by way of online.
ragjoy.....

eBay has very cheap advertising:

http://home-garden.shop.ebay.co.uk/items/UK-Ireland__W0QQ_armrsZ1QQ_dmdZ1QQ_mdoZHomeQ2dGardenQQ_msppZQQ_pcatsZ10542Q2c11700QQ_sacatZ93847

chickmug

SouthCoast wrote: »

eBay has very cheap advertising:

http://home-garden.shop.ebay.co.uk/items/UK-Ireland__W0QQ_armrsZ1QQ_dmdZ1QQ_mdoZHomeQ2dGardenQQ_msppZQQ_pcatsZ10542Q2c11700QQ_sacatZ93847

Not sure if it is any more effective than I found it some years ago. I found there were lots and lots of enquiries of very very low quality many only wanting to talk to us by email which made me suspicious. Was it young kids passing time?

The ones that phoned were NOT focussed in the way they should of been if they were serious house buyers. I can't reacll any getting to a viewing yet it cost us a lot more time in answering their silly questions.

Still nothing ventured nothing gained - may be worth a try but do not have high expectations?