Estate agent offer to sell house - any good?

meebsquat

Northampton

house valued at 85k

Fee is 2%

14 weeks tie in.

Seems excessive but I have little experience as this is the first house I would have sold...

Feedback welcome

Thanks

Neil

SusieT

Have you spoken to other agents in the area to see what their fees are?
I was not near Northampton but had 1.25% and a 12 week tie in.

If the agent is actually getting houses sold (not just having them sitting on their books) and others with lower percentages and shorter tie ins are not then it is more likely to be a good deal but you need to compare.

hazyjo

I find you can usually get the fee down. I'm paying 1% (in London) at the mo, and the agents we were with before were 1%. Both usually set their fees higher, but want the business, and they know the house should sell quite easily (fingers crossed!). Definitely get your lowest quote and use that as a bargaining tool with the agents you actually want to use.

You can get the tie-in period down too. I'd not like over 12 weeks personally.

Jx

firstaspect

2% sounds very high. Get a few valuations in, most I had were around 1%

Jackinbox99

Always get 3 quotes.

Im not far from Northampton and my house went on the market last week and I found that the local estate agents to me, rather than charge a % wanted a fixed fee, which was based upon which "band" the asking price of the house fell in.

For my house, when I worked out the % this varied from 2.5% to 3.5%.

I managed to negociate it down to 1.5%.

As for tie in periods... this ranged fom 12 weeks upto 20 weeks. I negociated and got this down to 6 weeks.

You`ll also find they say stuff like "we`ll give you a free HPC report if you go with our solicitors". They say the HPC report normally costs £120. Then you check and you can get an HPC online for £35. The solicitors the estate agents recommended came in at twice the price id been quoted elsewhere.

Another one to watch is extra fee`s for "premium listing" - mine charged me £185 to put premium listing on rightmove, so basically im paying for their advertising.

acidliam

I haggled down to 1% with my chosen agent, they need as much as possible, so you can shop around.

poppysarah

How good are they? Do you know anyone who has used them to buy or sell a house?

A good deal from a rubbish ea is a bad idea.

G_M

meebsquat wrote: »

Northampton

house valued at 85k
By how many agents? Just the one or is the average of several valuations?

Fee is 2%
Sole agents? Sole selling rights? Multi agency?
Any extras (like advertising fees)?
Was this their first quote or did you negotiate this fee?
What do other local agents charge?

14 weeks tie in.
Again, is this their standard tie in or did you negotiate it down? What if they turn out to be rubbish - you are stuck with them for 3.5 months!

Seems excessive but I have little experience as this is the first house I would have sold...

Feedback welcome

Thanks

Neil

Hope this helps.

Catatonia

I agree with the others. Estate Agents are often open to negotiation, so it's definitely worth trying to get the price down.

meebsquat

Valued by just the one, but seems to tie in with the general area (not very good as you can tell!)

Multi Agency is 2.5% - am I correct in thinking if I get another agency to market and sell my property, the original will require 2.5% as well?

1st quote, just wanted to hear what you guys think!

Agent earns about 1600 for the house sale... is this normal?

Wasn't sure on the % and weeks because the property is of "low value" and thought there might be a certain level that they wont go below.

Am I looking at trying to get around 1 - 1.5% with maybe 6 week tie in as a good offer?

Thanks

Neil

hazyjo

Doubt they'll come down to 6 weeks, I'd try for 8-12.

If you do use multi-agency, whoever gets the buyer will get the 2.5%. Not both.

Definitely get other quotes and act surprised when they say 2.whatever and ask if that's negotiable. Say friends of yours (us, if you like!) had got 1%, albeit in other areas.

Jx