Estate Agents Fees

keith969

chickmug wrote: »

But do you? .

EA has been round twice, first time about half an hour for valuation, then another time an hour to measure up and take photos.

He produced a glossy page with the details and pictures and I corrected his mistakes. 4 viewers over a period of about a week, one of which offered full asking price. Didn't put it on Rightmove, didn't put up a board, forgets to call me back when I leave a message for him.

All for £4500+vat.

The solicitor has generated lots of paperwork, kept me informed at all stages of the process with what's going on, handled some extra searches about possible contaminated land issues, sorted out some other issues which came up with the buyer's survey which required expert advice.

All for £450+vat.

keith969

Catbells wrote: »

Thank you Keith. Can you remember the verbal leverage you employed to beat the EA down. I need vocabulary here. Thanks.

I got quotes off several different EAs, and told each one if they could do better then we would have a deal.

Doozergirl

If you deal with a premium agent then the bills start to get split up into a commission based fee which is exclusive of VAT and a marketing charge for photographs, floorplans, glossy brochures etc.

Make sure you know exaclty what is included - you may have to pay for each and every newspaper advert, or the agent may include it in the price - so the negotiations become more complicated but if you are paying extra for all the marketing then you need to be hammering that commission based fee down.

Once you know what people want to charge you, you will have some ammunition to start haggling with them. I've never paid more than 1.5% + VAT and that was London. London Agents do seem to be more expensive than the provincials and less keen to negotiate.

chickmug

keith969 wrote: »

EA has been round twice, first time about half an hour for valuation, then another time an hour to measure up and take photos.

He produced a glossy page with the details and pictures and I corrected his mistakes. 4 viewers over a period of about a week, one of which offered full asking price. Didn't put it on Rightmove, didn't put up a board, forgets to call me back when I leave a message for him.

All for £4500+vat.

The solicitor has generated lots of paperwork, kept me informed at all stages of the process with what's going on, handled some extra searches about possible contaminated land issues, sorted out some other issues which came up with the buyer's survey which required expert advice.

All for £450+vat.

So your experience is on one sale whereas mine is on many thousands!

I will concede that some sales require less effort and some more and I wish EA's were the same as most solicitors in getting paid for the time spent.

keith969

chickmug wrote: »

So your experience is on one sale whereas mine is on many thousands!

Well actually I've sold 4, but I take your point.

chickmug wrote: »

I will concede that some sales require less effort and some more and I wish EA's were the same as most solicitors in getting paid for the time spent.

I don't have a problem with EAs getting paid for the work they actually do, but a flat % just does not seem right. I can certainly see internet based sites gaining a lot in popularity in future.

chickmug

keith969 wrote: »

Well actually I've sold 4, but I take your point.



I don't have a problem with EAs getting paid for the work they actually do, but a flat % just does not seem right. I can certainly see internet based sites gaining a lot in popularity in future.

I agree with most of posters about the quality of EA's and many of my threads quote sections from leglisation to help people. I agree with the Internet being the way forward and have said I would use Housenetwork with a few provisos. I would offer sellers a % or fixed price so with my old firm would never have neen an issue.

I just wish more would vent their anger to the right authorities and not just on the forum. This may help clean up the business a little?

googler

keith969 wrote: »

I don't have a problem with EAs getting paid for the work they actually do, but a flat % just does not seem right. I can certainly see internet based sites gaining a lot in popularity in future.

Well, the trouble with your previous post outlining what you think your agent did for your sale misses something out, and that's all the other work that went into the EA's day besides the work he did for you.

You know, the valuations for the folk who have no intention of using ANY EA and just want a figure to put their property on a self-sale website - the cost of travelling to viewings where viewers don't turn up - the cost of going to valuations where the owners forget about the appointment - etc etc

Why should I pay for this, you might ask? Basic profit/loss. If the EA doesn't bring in enough income to meet the expenses, they lose money. If they're providing services which aren't directly charged for on an hourly basis (free valuations, say), then the cost of the free services has to be met from the total income, i.e. the fees that successful sales like yours brought in.

You could also add in general promotional work for the agency itself, and other tasks not assignable to a particular property - if the property owners only paid for work done on their property on an hourly rate, how would this be financed?

All the expense in the work that doesn't yield a completed sale has to be met from the fees on the sales which do complete, as does any expense on anything non-assignable to a particular property.

pie81

Catbells wrote: »

Thank you Pie. In this area this agent deals with houses worth upto £15m an in a normal environment £1m seems a lot but relative to this neighbourhood its not. I can't help feeling that this shouldn't make a difference but maybe it does???

I'm also selling in London at the moment - and also in a reasonably expensive area (though not quite as expensive as yours). My small flat is one of the cheaper properties that my local agents will be selling.

Nonetheless, the agents were willing to negotiate on fees and were keen to get my business. I eventually agreed a fee of 1.5% if they get within £15k of asking price, or 1.25% if they get below that. No extra "marketing" fee.

London-wide, I get the impression from speaking to agents and fellow house hunters that there is very very little property for sale at the moment. On the other hand there are way more buyers looking for somewhere to buy. Attractive, well priced properties are selling pretty quickly with (I assume) relatively little work required by the agent. Therefore I would think you are in a good negotiating position at the moment. The agents need properties on their books to earn any money and to attract future business.

keith969

googler wrote: »

Well, the trouble with your previous post outlining what you think your agent did for your sale misses something out, and that's all the other work that went into the EA's day besides the work he did for you.

You know, the valuations for the folk who have no intention of using ANY EA and just want a figure to put their property on a self-sale website - the cost of travelling to viewings where viewers don't turn up - the cost of going to valuations where the owners forget about the appointment - etc etc

Why should I pay for this, you might ask? Basic profit/loss. If the EA doesn't bring in enough income to meet the expenses, they lose money. If they're providing services which aren't directly charged for on an hourly basis (free valuations, say), then the cost of the free services has to be met from the total income, i.e. the fees that successful sales like yours brought in.

You could also add in general promotional work for the agency itself, and other tasks not assignable to a particular property - if the property owners only paid for work done on their property on an hourly rate, how would this be financed?

All the expense in the work that doesn't yield a completed sale has to be met from the fees on the sales which do complete, as does any expense on anything non-assignable to a particular property.

Sorry googler, but I simply don't agree with this.

On valuations - I think they should be chargeable. After all I have to pay the lender for the valuation they carry out on a place I want to buy, so why not pay for a valuation on the place I want to sell? Perhaps if valuations were carried out more professionally by an independent body (i.e. not the EA, where there really is a conflict of interest), there would only be the need for 1 valuation and the whole mess of buyers valuations coming out at less than their offer price (due to overoptimistic EA valuations) would go away?

Why should I subsidise other sellers who turn out to be timewasters?

ognum

I have exchanged on a property I am selling and agreed with my EA that he would charge 0.7% if he got asking price or below and 1% for above asking. We agreed there was a blurred area around which t would cost me more to sell for more, we agreed we would not be disadvantaged.
As it was we sold in 10 days with multiple offers over asking. I think EAs know the houses they will sell quickly, I had good offers from 3 EAs, I went with the one I had a history with and who I feel is very professional. They have given excellent service but the area I live in is buzzing and houses are in short supply.