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Estate Agent Fees

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Hi,

I'm in the process of selling my Shared Ownership property; I've had 3/4 estate agents come round to look at the flat.
I was under the impression they work on a percentage basis 1% and incrementally from there.
Yet they all said they have a minimum fee of £2,400 plus. Does they sound normal? Or is this a product of how the housing market is at the moment? As its sounds extortionate for my 25% share.

Cheers,

Zo
«1

Comments

  • SAHD_Jim
    SAHD_Jim Posts: 242 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud! Mortgage-free Glee!
    As agents are selling far fewer properties, they will try to get more out of each one they sell and thus have ramped their fees. If house prices are dropping then minimum fees also are a clever tactic.

    Remember, you can always negotiate with them all to get the best fee possible. Depending on the area it is still possible to get fees down to 1.5% and even lower in my experience.
    I don't want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it through not dying
  • sonastin
    sonastin Posts: 3,210 Forumite
    Some agents do have a minimum fee to cover their costs and overheads - particularly at the bottom end of the market where selling for a % of your sale price could actually cost them money. It largely depends where you are but £2400 sounds high to me. I would have thought £1k was a more suitable minimmum. You might find that you can't get them to agree a % if it is SO, but you should certainly try to get the fixed fee down to something more acceptable.
  • SAHD_Jim wrote: »
    As agents are selling far fewer properties, they will try to get more out of each one they sell and thus have ramped their fees. If house prices are dropping then minimum fees also are a clever tactic.

    Remember, you can always negotiate with them all to get the best fee possible. Depending on the area it is still possible to get fees down to 1.5% and even lower in my experience.

    Blimey, 1.5% is quite a high rate now. We found a firm offering 0.75% + VAT.. eventually we chose the 1.5% firm, but negotiated it down to 1%

    Just tell them you won't pay the fixed fee, and what price/percentage you're prepared to part with.
  • googler
    googler Posts: 16,103 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Why should they charge you less for selling a 25% share of the house than for selling the whole of it?
  • kingstreet
    kingstreet Posts: 39,265 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    £2,400 + VAT? Is it a Countrywide group member by any chance? Bairstow Eves, Dixons, Bridgfords?
    I am a mortgage broker. You should note that this site doesn't check my status as a Mortgage Adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice. Please do not send PMs asking for one-to-one-advice, or representation.
  • WebGuru wrote: »
    Why on earth people on this forum use high street agents is beyond me.

    Because local knowledge can be worth using a high street agent for?
  • googler
    googler Posts: 16,103 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    WebGuru wrote: »
    Why on earth people on this forum use high street agents is beyond me.

    Because many people end up buying a different house from the one they first asked the agent about, and a high street agent will pro-actively call previous viewers if something new comes up that might be of interest to them, and actively put property in front of them, rather than waiting for the viewers to ask?

    Because cheapest isn't necessarily best?

    Because sellers would prefer marketing over multiple platforms, rather than just on the internet alone?

    Because they'd rather deal with a real person face-to-face than someone in a call centre in Milton Keynes?
  • aless02
    aless02 Posts: 5,119 Forumite
    My DH is an ex-estate agent and from experience can certainly tell you that anyone offering less than 1% fee is likely going to give you very shoddy service in return. These firms offer such low fees to drive clients in, but then have no client care and don't care anything else beyond the cold numbers. While there are crappy agents with high fees too, there is a measure of 'you get what you pay for'.

    A fixed fee is unusual but maybe it's b/c it's a shared ownership property? (more work for agent during the sale)
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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    Holiday Haggler
    edited 2 September 2011 at 1:39PM
    aless02 wrote: »
    My DH is an ex-estate agent and from experience can certainly tell you that anyone offering less than 1% fee is likely going to give you very shoddy service in return. These firms offer such low fees to drive clients in, but then have no client care and don't care anything else beyond the cold numbers. While there are crappy agents with high fees too, there is a measure of 'you get what you pay for'.

    A fixed fee is unusual but maybe it's b/c it's a shared ownership property? (more work for agent during the sale)

    To be honest, the guys charging .75% worked from an office, not a shop front, had a very good name by word of mouth and managed to pull in quite a lot of viewings. We did get an offer through them but sadly it fell through due to the buyer having their mortgage withdrawn. They were always available to talk to us, nice blokes also. If they weren't around, their secretary took messages and passed it on. Their service wasn't shoddy at all.

    We've had more lies from the guys charging more trying to justify their higher fees (we'll put you in the paper, we have a network of people actively finding buyers, blah.. )

    Of course your DH ex-estate agent will try to justify higher charges for a 'better' service. What they do isn't exactly rocket science and often a higher price will be to attempt to show they are 'worth it'
  • An agent can ask for whatever they like, but in the end it all comes down to negotiation.

    Fixed fees are normally used in low-value transactions where a normal %-type rate simply does not cover the time and overheads involved.

    To be honest selling 25% share of a house and getting a standard % on only 25% is hardly going to be worth anyone's time. The agent is likely to at least charge fees as for any normal 100% house, as it's effectively the same job.

    Another disadvantage of shared ownership - £2k of fees isn't much on 100k of house but is a hell of a lot on 25k of house.

    Mind you, having told you not to expect a low fee, it still sounds too high to be a genuine minimum.
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