Paying estate agent upfront ?

lee_d_m

Hi,

Had the first estate agent round to value the house. They are probably the largest EA in the area.

They want to charge us £90 incl. VAT for the following:

Marketing, including photos and floorplans
EPC
We must use their solicitor.

They have other options, but this is the cheapest.

They also want to charge us around £3,000 if they sell the house for 145k. oh, and this was on a 20 weeks tie-in, sole agency.

What do you think I should be negotiating on, last time I sold, I didn't have to pay anything upfront (apart from the dreaded HIP).

He said they couldn't go as low as 1%, but I didn't push him on it this time as we have other EA's to see yet.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Jazzie99

thats just over 2%. I hate flat fees - where's the incentive to sell for the maximum. They will get £3k whether you sell at £145k or £110k.

They sound like the largest EA around my way. They wanted to charge a flat fee of £4,000 for selling my house for around £265k.

I ended up using a local smaller agent (who have been v good). They wanted to charge a fee of 1.5% but I negoitated down to 1% (about £2,650 if I sell at £265k). Tie in is 6 weeks.

As for using their solictor - tell them to jog on !

lee_d_m

Hi,

Thanks for the advice, I probably didn't word the bit about the solicitor very well.

The offer is, use their solicitor and get photos, floorplans and EPC for £90 incl. VAT...........or

Don't use their solicitor and they'll charge £150 for floorplans, photos and EPC.

Credit-Crunched

Anyone telling me who i can use for conveyancing for MY sales sounds like a firm i do not wish to work with, obviously looking at making screwing you for every penny they can.

Shop around and play them off each other!

DVardysShadow

Credit-Crunched wrote: »

Anyone telling me who i can use for conveyancing for MY sales sounds like a firm i do not wish to work with, obviously looking at making screwing you for every penny they can.

Shop around and play them off each other!

And the other issue is if you don't use theirs, then maybe they will try to force your buyers to do use them. Not good.

G_M

Run away!

Don't pay anything up front, except for an EPC which you can get for yourself for £40-50.(and use again if you need to change agents later)

Don't use an EA's solicitor - choose/use your own.

Don't pay a flat fee - a % means they'll go for the best price for you rather than get a sale at ANY price.

Make sure any agent you use will put you on Right move/ Prime Property or similar

And NEVER sign up for 20 weeks! If you're not happy, you're stuck! Most agents will tell you they have 'clients waiting' or can sell easily. Fine, tell them they don't need 20 weeks then! 2 month tie-in is plenty. If they can't find you a buyer in that time either they've over-priced it (to get you to sign up!) or they are useless. Either way, switch.

Gwhiz

I would avoid them like the plague!

Jeffrey_Shaw

Credit-Crunched wrote: »

Anyone telling me who i can use for conveyancing for MY sales sounds like a firm i do not wish to work with, obviously looking at making screwing you for every penny they can.

Shop around and play them off each other!

DVardysShadow wrote: »

And the other issue is if you don't use theirs, then maybe they will try to force your buyers to do use them. Not good.

Gwhiz wrote: »

I would avoid them like the plague!

I agree with all three posts.
Tell the agents that:
a. you're the Principal (boss); and
b. they are your Agents (mere sub-contractors); so
c. you tell them what to do (and not vice-versa).

MissMotivation

Avoid! If they don't sell your property they end up with £90 of your money, you end up not wanting to swap agents because of this and you feel that your are "tied" to this agent whether they are doing a good job.....or not!

sonastin

Ask 'em what the £3000 buys you if you've already paid for the marketing of your property.

(I am sure that in response you'll get a lovely spiel about the wonderful sales team who will have buyers eating out of their hands but you should remember that the only half decent salesman in their team is the one sent to sign you up!)

charltonkeston

I'd go with any agent that has access to Right Move. I think I'm right in thinking that wfere we all look.