fixed fee estate agency- good or bad?

pokey128

Hi
We have had 3 EAs round to value our flat and 2 charge 1.5% marketing fees (plus solicitors fees, advertising fees, home report etc) and the 3rd has all the other fees but has a fixed marketing fee of £600. Obviously, this is the cheapest and could save us a couple of 1000 nearly but does anyone have any experience with this type of agency?
I've seen a lot of houses on the market through them and their brochures etc look nice and they advertise on ESPC and all the other usual places too.
My head says don't go with them cause they won't make any effort in selling your property but I really liked the girl who came round and they did give us what i think was the most realistic valuation.

Any thoughts?

nomoneytoday

1.5% vs £600 of how much?
If they don't sell it, it's academic

westernpromise

Doesn't this mean they couldn't care less what it sells for?

Next time I sell I think I will give the agent more money the higher the price.

Eg 1.5% if it goes for £250k
2% if £250 to £275

etc...

rpc

The 1.5% sounds a quite high - I have never paid more than 1% and on my last two sales marketing was 0.7%, haggled from 0.8%. That was last year, although one has only just sold now.

The valuation given by a solicitor/EA is largely irrelevant as you will get the mortgage valuation in the home report and should use that to base your marketing price on. Some agents reckon they can influence the surveyor, I don't know about that.

I wouldn't pay 1.5%, but £600 sounds a little too good to be true unless it is a very low value flat.

pokey128

Thanks everyone
It was whether they cared what they sold for which was worrying me as well but they do seem to be doing quite well and certainly talk a good game. Does the estate agent really do that much in Scotland? I've bought 2 flats and sold 1 and when I was looking online for them I didn't pay any attention who was marketing it.
Flat is valued (by eas) at around £240k but I think £215 is more realistic so it is a big saving.

googler

Their marketing fee may merely be an upfront fee to cover sale boards, schedules and other stuff like putting your property into the ESPC - that was over £200 last time I checked, so you need to clarify with this excessively cheap agent exactly what their costs are when broken down into individual items and whether that includes conveyancing, etc.

I find it hard to believe that they're going to take less than £400 for the same as the others are charging well over 1% for. The typical rate for conveyancing on a sale locally would appear to be £700 - £900, depending on who you hire, so it seems that this would have to be an extra on the £600.....

You also need a breakdown and a bottom line figure from those quoting you a percentage too.

You may have liked the girl who came to your house, but where does that leave you when she's out drumming up more business from others, and you're dealing with her pals back in the office?

pokey128

Thanks. Yeah, the £600 is just marketing etc and doesn't include the espc fees (£365), conveyancing (approx £800), home report (£675) so the total we are looking at is just under £2500 which is still a lot less than other who are also still charging the other fees as well as the 1.5%
I will hunt around for other solicitors to see if their marketing fees are less as I just thought that given 2 were 1.5% that the rest would be as well!

timmyt

pay 1.5% as a fixed fee gives little incentive especially if you pay upfront.
the lower the price the less hard your money works. basic really.