How many people renegotiate estate agents fees?

Doozergirl

googler wrote: »

The business income might have increased in line with house prices, but do you really imagine all their expenses have stayed static?

No one is even suggesting that

Faced with plenty of food for thought you choose to argue a point that no-one is making

northerner79

Doozer they are your thoughts. Through my work I have dealt with hundreds of transactions and I assure you, in the main you get what you pay for! If you pay peanuts you get monkeys!! You seem to have been lucky though which is great for you!

Doozergirl

northerner79 wrote: »

Doozer they are your thoughts. Through my work I have dealt with hundreds of transactions and I assure you, in the main you get what you pay for! If you pay peanuts you get monkeys!! You seem to have been lucky though which is great for you!

Don't patronise me please. They are not my 'thoughts', that is true experience of dozens of 'transactions' spending my own money where I personally have been buyer and a vendor and seen each of them through from offer to completion. That's on properties from £40,000 up to well over half a million - values covering most of the UK housing stock and dealings both North, South and Midland.

I have not been 'lucky' as you say, I have encountered more agents than I care to count whilst trying to find an agent for a property and many more trying to find the properties in the first place. It must run into many hundreds of encounters with EAs - it's got nothing to do with 'luck'. As a vendor I know exactly what I want but I won't spend more than I have to getting it.

It is a simple fact that an agency is as good as the people within it and that does not follow a pattern of how much they charge.

northerner79

I agree that an agency is as good as the people within it, but people know their true value and if they are good they can charge more. It's a simple fact of life, if you are good at something you get rewarded at a higher rate than those who aren't so good. It is the same in any walk of life, any job and any profession.

Sorry they are not 'your thoughts' they are a reflection of your experiences, I merely observed that you have been lucky to have such fine experiences with Estate Agents and I am sure many people out there have not had such enjoyable experiences.

Doozergirl

northerner79 wrote: »

Sorry they are not 'your thoughts' they are a reflection of your experiences, I merely observed that you have been lucky to have such fine experiences with Estate Agents and I am sure many people out there have not had such enjoyable experiences.

Fine experiences? Are you joking? I said I'd sold with three good agents; one was superb and that was at 1.5% in an area where that was the average price anyway. I'd pay for them over and over again unfortuantely it isn't an area I deal in much anymore. I've sold with more agents than three. They are mostly all the same, regardless of price.

I've had many more rubbish experiences, some bordering on the ridiculous. I've met the stereotypical wheeler dealer; people who simply didn't have a clue and couldn't value a property if their life depended on it; blatant crooks; liars; people who didn't care; people who were simply ineffective; oh and all those people who were too snooty to realise that they worked in the Estate Agency - not owned all the properties being advertised in it.

On the whole, my experience of estate agents has been entirely mediocre. Enough for me to know that I could do better than most - not said with any degree of lightness either.

When you are looking for an agent you do not go for the most expensive expecting the best service. You shop them first, you quiz your valuer (never telling them how much you want) and you find out exactly who it is that will be dealing with your sale because the nice man who knows the business inside out and talks with such aplomb when he visits your house - spends all day going around other people's houses getting them to put their house on the market and not actually dealing with potential buyers.

chickmug

not_loaded wrote: »

My point here chickmug (#46) is that Housenetwork imho give an overall better than most, at least equal to the best, marketing presentation of the property. No one really wants to pay a minimum of ten times Housenetwork to get an inferior job done surely?

A few weeks ago I really was very seriously considering selling privately or using housenetwork for my daughters property. Initally I thought I would sell privately I took all the photos, picked the best nine (only a one bedroomed flat) wrote a four sided set of details but then looked at housenetwork.

The main thing with housenetwork is getting me on Rightmove. Even though I have been in the business I do not want to go back to any old contacts and ask them to help me out by placing an ad on there.

However my eventual decision was made based on the location of the property, understanding the potential buyers in this location. It is within 50 yards of the main street in a place with a population of 1,000 and those likely buy will be older singles. As it is nowhere near places where younger people would be working so buying. So my feeling is that the target buying group are the sort to pop into the local estate agents and NOT surf the net. This coupled with £1,000 + Vat fee, a very affordable HIPs pack made the decision for me obvious.

However true to say the EA I have chosen does not have details anywhere near the standards I used to do but is giving out my set as well as theirs. Only just on sale but had a number of viewings from the agents register and all older people as we suspected they would be.

So I have warmed to the housenetwork service but also feel there are times, like in my case, where it isn't quite right but would have no hestitaion in suggesting them.

But God help those trying to find a decent agent that ticks all the boxes?

chickmug

Doozergirl wrote: »

It is a simple fact that an agency is as good as the people within it and that does not follow a pattern of how much they charge.

How very true and this is usually from independents in my experience.

Doozergirl

chickmug wrote: »

So I have warmed to the housenetwork service but also feel there are times, like in my case, where it isn't quite right but would have no hestitaion in suggesting them.

I'd agree with that. You have to consider the target market and whether they are likely to be on line. HN might not be the best idea for a retirement bungalow

If you're right by an EA as well, you do get people that will come for impromptu viewings simply because it's close, they've got some free time and you're in. With one agent, we were so close that I'd call them on weekend mornings and tell them I was in, would they consider sending any potential buyers right round? That really worked - I've never had so many viewings over a weekend.

googler

Doozergirl wrote: »

No one is even suggesting that

Faced with plenty of food for thought you choose to argue a point that no-one is making

What point was keith969 making, then?

Doozergirl

googler wrote: »

What point was keith969 making, then?

Quite simply that general inflation has not affected the price of anything, groceries namely, nearly as much as the House Price Index has directly affected the price of estate agency.

EA fees go up directly in line with the price of houses, the increase in the cost of groceries is a direct result of the increase in costs to produce - that is true inflation.

It doesn't cost three times as much to advertise a property because the costs of marketing properties, employing staff etc hasn't increased in line with the House Price Index, they've increased in line with regular inflation. Whilst there has been the introduction of internet advertising, that hasn't tripled the cost of marketing a property.