Advice needed on selling my property

paul090971

We have had 4 estate agents round and seem to value the property accurately. Between £165k-£175k so I am thinking of putting it on at £169,950. I am quite surprised though at the difference in fees & HIP's services. The cheapest was 1% fee with £300+VAT hips and the most expensive was 2% fee and HIP of £399 +VAT.

The agent I would like to use was in the middle, 1.5% fee and HIP's of £399+VAT. I have asked them to match the fee of 1%, ( I forgot about the HIPs' match) and they have come back and said they will charge me 1% if they can do the HIP's & conveyancing. If they dont do that for me then they will reduce their fee to 1.5%.

I am a bit anoyed with myself for not asking for a discount on the HIPS & I have no idea how much they want for the conveyancing. Which deal should I accept or should I try again and ask them to match the 1% fee and sort the HIPS & conveyancing out with another company/solicitor.

Thanks for any feedback.

sarah_elton

You need to get a quote for their conveyancing and compare it to local solicitors, as they could be more expensive thereby negating the 0.5% fee cut.

Re HIP, you can get one online for about £180+VAT, assuming your property is freehold. I used www.hips4u.com when I sold my flat in February and had no problem with them.

One pointer - double check that the 1% fee is of the selling price, not the asking price. I know it seems like a stupid question, but I heard of one agent local to me that calculates the fee based on asking price. :rolleyes:

When I sold, I didn't go with the cheapest agent. The one I used was about £600 more than the cheapest but convinced me he'd sell it - he was really enthusiastic about the property. Afterwards, I wondered if it was worth it as properties get listed on Rightmove and most buyers search there, so does it matter what agency it's with? But having said that, I went from going on the market to completion in just over 5 weeks, so can't complain.

googler

All you've told us is the difference in fees.

Are the agents doing anything different from each other? Is the one charging more actually going to do more for you?

What distinguishes one from the other? The most expensive may be worth his weight in gold, but we can't tell from what you've told us.

These are the questions that you should have been asking at the valuation visits.

ClaudiaC_3

I am selling and buying at the moment, and we went with this EA just because they were selling the property we saw that we wanted to buy so it all happened suddenly and we thought they'd look after us as if they'd sell our house they would ensure 2 sales.

However, I used Hips4You for the HIPS, and the EA fee was 1.5%, but when I looked around another agency was doing 1.25% negotiable. So I told my EA and they at first said it wasn't negotiable, then they said OK we'll do it for 1.25%.
So fees are entirely negotiable and i suggest you do that and push for 1% fee without strings attached. They do want to sell your house as they are hardly selling same number as before, so you are in a stronger position.
Don't forget that in this day and age people who want to buy a house will look on the internet rather than going through a particular estate agent, so provided you agent as a website and advertises on local paper and maybe via a global website, your house will market itself and estate agents have to do very little, so an estate agent is more or less the same as another (although I suppose there will be a few exceptions!)

If your main aim is to try and save as much money as possible, then I'd simply go with the cheapest HIPS company and the cheapest estate agents.

Godo luck!

Claudia

Benji_Brown

Firstly, ask them for a quote for your solictiors fees. There will be no problem getting hold of these for you, as well as a quote for your HIP. It may work out well, it may not but it is better knowing now rather than later.

I would suggest that you have a look at your area and see which agent is selling the most houses and for the best price. Agents charging higher fees may be able to justify their prices by selling your property quicker and for a higher asking price.

Also, ask family and friends if they have had any experiences with the agents. This is always one of the best ways of finding out whether an agent is any good or not.

vegasbaby100

googler wrote: »

All you've told us is the difference in fees.

Are the agents doing anything different from each other? Is the one charging more actually going to do more for you?

What distinguishes one from the other? The most expensive may be worth his weight in gold, but we can't tell from what you've told us.

These are the questions that you should have been asking at the valuation visits.

We have just sold ou house STC. We were in the same position but decided to pay a little more for the EA we felt was best and all has turned out well they sold our property the SAME DAY!! I know money is important but do you want your house on the market forever?

G_M

You can do the HIP yourself! £50 for an energy report, then maybe £20 for searches. Fill in the other forms yourself (some of them a HIP provider will ask you to complete anyway) and bingo!

See here.