Estate Agent Fees

ohbilmey · 21 July 2011 at 8:34PM

Evening
Planning to put a house on market and got potential EA to email terms for me to have a look at. I plan to call tomorrow to clarify a few things but wondered if this is pretty standard. Having to find a new agent as previous one went out of business a couple of weeks ago.
Selling fee - 1.5% of sale price subject to minimum of £1000. (It would be £1000 as 1.5% of sale price will be less than that)
Brochures £300
Doesn't say anything about initial marketing fee.
Unaccompanied view fee £75 (not per viewing as far as I'm aware, just a lump sum)
Every 6 months they charge 50% of initial fixed marketing fee (which I don't know yet) and also every 6 months the view fee of £75 is applied again.
Previous agent charged 1% of final selling price and £250 one-off for brochures and did unaccompanied viewings (all 2 of them in a year) so this new lot seem pretty steep (maybe that's why the first ones went out of business?)
As I said I plan to clarify tomorrow what initial marketing fee is and also if they charge the unaccompanied viewing fee if we don't get any viewings!
Does all this sound pretty standard?

Caroline73_2 · 21 July 2011 at 9:15PM

Is there VAT on top of those figures?

I've paid 1.5% + VAT on my sale. No other fees. They did all the viewings, colour brochures with photos and floorplans, on Rightmove and the EA own website. That was for a 12 week tie in. After that I could leave without penalty. If I tooo my house or the market in the first 129 weeks I would haves paid for the EA costs incurred, I didn't enquire what they were because I would have iust sat on it for the tie in period rather than pay.

betmunch · 21 July 2011 at 9:23PM

I dont like that list at all. I am very much into the simplistic though. If it were me I would ask for a price to sell the house, either a fixed fee or a percent of the final price.
I wouldnt have anything to do with set up fees or withdrawal fees unless there was no other option.
Obviously I dont know what options are available in your town.

ohbilmey · 21 July 2011 at 9:40PM

Not a lot of options actually - smallish town in semi-rural area. Is it normal to charge a 6-monthly "top-up" fee I wonder? There's no mention of VAT. Hmmm, I will really need to get a list of queries together - they had sent me all this in a PDF mandate form to sign. Really desparate to sell though, house was on with previous agent for a year, 2 viewings.

betmunch · 21 July 2011 at 9:48PM

How many agents in your town?

ohbilmey · 21 July 2011 at 10:17PM

Just 2 of the big ones - and I think a couple of smallish offices. I haven't lived in the area for years and am not that familiar with what's what these days.