estate agents fees?

charlie007

hello

i am putting my house on the market in the morning, i have been quoted 1500 + vat for the sale of my house. I have had a few quotes but this is the best estate agent (from recomendation). Any tips before i sign the contract to try to get him to knock it down. I asked him when he did the valuation but he said that it was the price, i know my house will be really easy to sell so don't really want to pay so much when he will only have to put it in the property paper for one week.

£Ronnie

how much is the house valued at?

charlie007

80,000, we are going to put it on with offers to be in in two weeks time.

£Ronnie

So by my calculations this is almost 2%, which seems to be a fairly standard starting rate. I am no expert but we have just accepted an offer toaday:j, on our house and all of the ea's quoted at around this %. Have you read the sticky at the top of this board about selling houses, there are some great tips in it about dealing with ea's and as a result I managed to barter with them about fees. I managed to get one to agree to 1%, but three weeks later had to change agents after a catologue of disasters. Changed to an agent with a deal of 1.5% and have sold it stc within ten days! So sometimes you pay peanuts and you get monkeys.

Also bear in mind that it will cost an agent to advertise your house regardless of the value, eg an ad in the paper and printing the particulars will cost the same so in theory the higher the value the more profit the ea will make for the same amount of work.It may not be worth him taking it on for any less when the value is low(in todays market, no offence intended)

i too believed that my house would almost sell itself, but most of the hard work is after you accept the offer, communicating with solicitors etc, so i am told...;)

Have you thought about selling it privately if you are so confident it will sell?

I would have done but was concerned from a safety aspect as I would have two small children in the house with me should i get a dodgy viewer!

HTH but I am sure some of the regulars will be along soon to offer more advice, make sure you read that sticky!:D

Ronnie

charlie007

thanks for that. i have spoken to the agent this afternoon and managed to agree 1250 so am quite chuffed.

Woby_Tide

the max figure we got quoted by agents round here was 1.5%(lowest was 1%). Guess it depends on the area as to how much they think they need to make(or possibly on average value to be worthwhile) i..e they may work wherever they are to get £1.5k per property but the %age depends on average property price in that area

david29dpo

in the midlands, the prices ranged from £950- £1500+ vat. the £950 one valued it at £69000, the £1500, £74000. i greedily went with the higher and guess what? it sold in less that a week at £73500! so i was happy to pay the higher. ringing the others now to gloat!