Sell your house at Tesco for £200!!

MissMotivation

bigheadxx wrote: »

There are plenty of goods and services that are cheaper now than in 2000. Given the impact of internet technology on the EA industry of the last 10 years why would the cost of selling a house have risen significantly and have they really increased by the same amounts as actual house prices?

It's because of internet technology that service are more expensive. 10 years ago agents didn't use the internet so there was NO cost. With the demand now for being on as many portals as possible there has been an increased outlay for agents to keep up with competition.

I do wish that people who, obviously, have no knowledge of what the costs are would not post stuff like this.

bigheadxx

MissMotivation wrote: »

It's because of internet technology that service are more expensive. 10 years ago agents didn't use the internet so there was NO cost. With the demand now for being on as many portals as possible there has been an increased outlay for agents to keep up with competition.

I do wish that people who, obviously, have no knowledge of what the costs are would not post stuff like this.

There may have been no cost in terms of internet advertising but there would have been other costs eg Newspaper advertising (just the opinion of somebody with no knowledge whatsoever of running an EA) which would be lower now as are printing costs and the cost of putting together details of individual houses.

What I object to is a "professional" Estate Agent producing poor quality sales particulars, that I could write better myself, telling me that he is the only person who can sell my house and then charging £2000 plus for it.
(I havent recently sold a house BTW)

I agree that most buyers prefer to go through an agent and that selling a house privately is difficult but this will change as people realise that the service they receive is poor value in terms of what they get for it.

Not that many years ago most people would not have booked separate flight and hotel packages to book a holiday. Firstly because they liked the security of booking through an agent and secondly because there were few companies that offered this option. If the same can happen to buy a house, where a company like Tesco steps in and opens up the market and changes how people buy, then other companies will step in, offering similar services and buyer behaviour will change as it has in the travel industry.

Would you pay £2000 for a holiday when you can get it for £1000? Yes some people do but over time getting the best return on your outlay is what counts.

Estate Agents? 10 more decent years?

googler

bigheadxx wrote: »

There may have been no cost in terms of internet advertising but there would have been other costs eg Newspaper advertising (just the opinion of somebody with no knowledge whatsoever of running an EA) which would be lower now as are printing costs and the cost of putting together details of individual houses.

So you admit that you're just making this up, with NO real knowledge of what rates the newspapers charge the EAs, NO real knowledge of how those rates compare with what they were in 2000, and - what precisely is the "cost of putting together details of individual houses", and why should it be cheaper than in 2000?

trolleymate

googler wrote: »

So you admit that you're just making this up, with NO real knowledge of what rates the newspapers charge the EAs, NO real knowledge of how those rates compare with what they were in 2000, and - what precisely is the "cost of putting together details of individual houses", and why should it be cheaper than in 2000?

Just finished reading a great article on lovemoney.com which refers to a much more balanced debate and advice on this subject.

Articles including a which report that clearly reports it is time to change the way we sell property in order to save a great deal of money.

According to consumer body Which? choosing an online agent over their high street counterpart could save you on average more than £3,000 in fees. Or you can save even more money by simply selling your home yourself.

Googler you seem to have a great skill at drawing people into an argument (not very friendly) and only answering what you think is right rather than finding some useful information to support which is obviously going to be the way forward.
You have made it clear you do not agree with this concept and I think you should move on to another thread and free up this thread so that we can discuss the benefts and of course potentialy save money.

You seem to be fighting the corner of the estate agents and trying to justify the fees, all other forums, articles and debates across the world wide web are questioning these fees and confirming the need to put a stop to it and save the customer unjust and uneccessary expense.

Maybe you should start a new thread ' Save Our Estate Agents'

(regarding your continued efforts to ignore my posts regarding your unfounded accusations in another post, I have had that thread removed from the forum.

trolleymate

googler wrote: »

So you admit that you're just making this up, with NO real knowledge of what rates the newspapers charge the EAs, NO real knowledge of how those rates compare with what they were in 2000, and - what precisely is the "cost of putting together details of individual houses", and why should it be cheaper than in 2000?

Found this article maybe of interest.
No salespeople required
Selling a £150,000 home could easily cost you £3,500 in estate-agent fees, even if you negotiate on price. That's a lot of money for very little work. Consider what they actually do:

• They value the property. This is a free service they do in return for a chance to sell their services to you.
• They might spend 120 minutes on emails and phone calls (assuming 10 minutes a week for 12 weeks).
• They might spend 400 minutes showing people around your home (assuming about 20 visits lasting an average 20 minutes each, and this includes the 10 minutes or so it takes them to drive to and from your property).
• Add 60 minutes for preparing all the advertising (including on Rightmove and such things as taking photos).
• Add on 30 minutes for the paperwork (which is generous as it's all standard letters and forms).

Add this up and, in total, they're earning about £344 per hour. They're not doctors. They're not lawyers near the top of their field. Even after deducting their minuscule expenses (for photos, brochures and advertising, for example), that's one heck of a wage.

Any body who wants the link let me know and I will do it PM.

trolleymate

Fixed Price Property Marketing is moving much faster than suggested and like many industries have found to their cost the internet and new business models puts people more in charge and the losers are those who cannot and will not adapt.

Jowo_2

There is a lot of criticism of online conveyancing, whether or not the cheap fixed fees they offer (plus disbursements) actually means the customer gets a shoddy service through corner cutting.

This can be debated endlessly. For example, I got a quote from a local solicitor to sell a friends property and produce the HIP which comes out at £1250 whereas Fridays Property Lawyers quoted £380.

At its nub, the huge difference is that the local solicitor has a hefty fee for the HIP and a hefty legal fee whereas Fridays offer a much smaller legal fee and will significant rebate on the HIP if you take the conveyancing service with them. Both solicitors had strongly positive reviews on online review sites.

But there is no doubt that some local solicitors are being challenged by the online solicitors whose marketing reach is much wider and whose operating costs are much lower.

So I don't think there's plenty of fat and complacency in the way estate agents do business which is going to be impacted by Tescos and/or the switch to low fixed fees instead of commission based on sales price. Their current business model is under attack.

In another example, you also have to consider the big impact that online digital music had on retail music shops. The cutting out of the middle tier of infrastructure and management between consumer and service seller can take place without any adverse affect on the consumer.

googler

trolleymate wrote: »

(regarding your continued efforts to ignore my posts regarding your unfounded accusations in another post, I have had that thread removed from the forum.

Wow. I don't know what to say. 'Covering your tracks' comes to mind.

You get to demand that I apologise for something, and now scholars and historians can't see the context of it.

googler

trolleymate wrote: »

Found this article maybe of interest.
......

Consider what they actually do:

• They value the property. This is a free service they do in return for a chance to sell their services to you.
• .......
• They might spend 400 minutes showing people around your home (assuming about 20 visits lasting an average 20 minutes each, and this includes the 10 minutes or so it takes them to drive to and from your property).

.....and, in total, they're earning about £344 per hour. They're not doctors.......that's one heck of a wage.

Any body who wants the link let me know and I will do it PM.

Why not just tell us where it is? Even if you can't post it as an actual link, copy/paste it and leave the http and www off. We can figure it out.

The 'article' raises an interesting couple of points as above. The income from sales that reach a conclusion has to cover the 'free' work that EAs do for the public. How many times have you read here that someone has asked 3, 4 or 5 EAs to value their home, then picked one of them - or decided to market the home themselves? In case it's not obvious, that means that 2, 3 or 4 EAs spend an hour or so, plus travelling time with a seller for no income whatsoever. If the EA provides a free valuation service, the cost of these valuations which go nowhere - in time, petrol etc - has to be paid from the successful sales. What about dealing with buyers? Buyers don't pay EAs anything, but how much time do they spend with them? Factor that in too.

I find 20 mins viewing at a property and 10 mins each way in travel time to be farcically optimistic, and couldn't by any stretch of the imagination be viewed as an average figure.

If the £344 per hour is calculated by dividing the fee quoted by the hours totalled (I haven't checked it), then - THAT'S NOT A WAGE. It's a business income, from which all business expenses must be met, before the EA and any staff can draw a salary from it.

googler

trolleymate wrote: »

Googler you seem to have a great skill at drawing people into an argument (not very friendly) and only answering what you think is right rather than finding some useful information to support which is obviously going to be the way forward.

.....all other forums, articles and debates across the world wide web are questioning these fees and confirming the need to put a stop to it....

Unless you've read every one of the posts I've made at this site, you're in no real position to pronounce on what I've contributed and whether it was useful or not.

ALL other forums concur with your view? ALL?