Negotiating Estate Agent Fees

gemima

Hi All,

We have had various attempts at selling over the last few years each time ending up with buyers (first time we couln't find anywhere to move to and 2nd time buyer pulled out).

Anyway, we want to have yet another go as we have been here for 10 years and we need a bigger house. In our experience we have felt that every agent we have ever come across has been weak and particularly useless when it comes to knowing our house and area and they get huffy when they can't book appointments when it suits them rather than us. We don't live in a show home as we have 2 kids, 2 dogs, a cat and a rabbit so a bit of tidying up and getting all out of the house is required on my part prior to a viewing (along with working too!). We also can't bear these so called viewing agents!
I feel confident enough to show people around our home and are happy for evening/weekend visits. We don't want a board (don't want neighbours knowing our business) and only want rightmove advertising (not local paper). The obvious answer is to use an online agent but the negative is that they don't have any properties in our area and I think there is a bit of snobbery surrounding locals that they don't trust an online agent.
My question is do you think we could negotiate a lower comission from a local agent (any estate agents on here?) on the basis of what I have said or am I just wasting our time and just go straight to an online agent (any recomendations?).
Thanks all for any advice you may have.

MrRee_2

In my experience, the Commission you can negotiate (they are always negotiable!) depends completely on how long the Agent thinks it will take to sell your property.

If you want to ask 115% of the expected final price then the Agent isn't going to be too generous on his commission - but, if you say you will ask 95% (and get lots of offers quickly) then he is going to sell it for 0.25 to 0.5% as, quite simply, it will cost him nothing to sell it!

Honest_EA

MrRee wrote: »

In my experience, the Commission you can negotiate (they are always negotiable!) depends completely on how long the Agent thinks it will take to sell your property.

If you want to ask 115% of the expected final price then the Agent isn't going to be too generous on his commission - but, if you say you will ask 95% (and get lots of offers quickly) then he is going to sell it for 0.25 to 0.5% as, quite simply, it will cost him nothing to sell it!

What a load of tosh! MrRee seems to think that you can get an EA to sell your house for 0.25%-0.5% if you are willing to accept 95% of the full asking price, lol. It is common knowledge that vendors are having to accept on average 10% below realistic asking prices to achieve a sale so if this is the norm then you will pay the normal EA commission in your area. In my area this can be 1.5% or above. I have to add that our sales levels are positive and we are achieving sales close to asking price but that is down to realistic valuations from day one.

You say that the EA gets huffy when they cant book a time that suits them and not you. Have you ever thought that it was the potential purchaser that suggested this viewing time to suit them and maybe you should be a little more flexible if you want to ever achieve a sale? I do viewings any time of the day or night and at weekends and often get a key left outside for me so that the vendors dont need to be there so I dont see the big problem with this request from the EA. You dont need to be there!

Last point - you say that you don't want a board because you don't want your neighbours knowing your business. Trust me when I say that if it is advertised on the internet on rightmove etc someone will know about it in your estate and word will spread. I know from experience that you can never hide your house for sale if it is on the open market and why the hell would you ever want to? You are trying to sell your house so you want everyone to know about it surely! It seems from your post that you want no hassle, no one to know about your business and to pay the bare minimum to have your house sold for the best possible price. A reality check awaits.

googler

I second all that Honest EA said, and add that you sound like an EA's worst nightmare.

No sale board? The EA will get calls saying that someone saw it on Rightmove, but couldn't find it when they drove by to look.

No weekday viewings? What about buyers who work weekends, and don't want to view your house after dark?

etc
etc

gemima

googler wrote: »

I second all that Honest EA said, and add that you sound like an EA's worst nightmare.

No sale board? The EA will get calls saying that someone saw it on Rightmove, but couldn't find it when they drove by to look.

No weekday viewings? What about buyers who work weekends, and don't want to view your house after dark?

etc
etc

I don't think I said we didn't want weekday viewings did I?
I only asked the question! To be honest I really don't know why I bothered. I don't work full time so am around during the day but we quite often got asked to have a viewing when I was at work, the dogs were at home and the kids had left a mess on the same day - surely thats not realistic or is everyone living in pristine homes??

No, we don't want all and sundry knowing our business and there are loads of properties that are up for sale without boards - why should we have one? We drove around today and found one we liked that didn't have a board - it only takes a bit of investigation.

No, we also don't want to sell our house for zero commision and maximum price with least effort - that offends me. We are completely realistic with what we can get for our house - we just don't feel that the agents ever know enough about the house or area to sell it correctly, especially in these hard times - I would rather do it myself. The amount of times we have wandered around a house and asked a question that the viewing agent has no idea how to answer!

I wasn't really looking for reasons why we shouldn't have a for sale board or why we shouldn't use an agent - just some advice if anyone has been in a similar situation - perhaps a bit too much to ask on here.

Sorry if I ranted but I haven't posted on here for a while and feel slightly upset by the replies so far. Maybe we should go with an online agent and be done with it - far less hassle. Also, those that have replied do you have kids, dogs etc. that you have to tidy up after before a viewing?? Its very stressful and its not a decision we will take lightly before entering into this difficult market.

Hoof_Hearted

To be honest, I would try an online agent if you are happy to conduct your own viewings. Most house hunters browse Rightmove and similar. Probably sell your place for around £500. In any case, it's probably worth a go for a couple of months. We are just about to give House Network a go.

gemima

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

To be honest, I would try an online agent if you are happy to conduct your own viewings. Most house hunters browse Rightmove and similar. Probably sell your place for around £500. In any case, it's probably worth a go for a couple of months. We are just about to give House Network a go.

Thank you for a positive response. We have looked at House Network - there are about 3 that look decent enough and advertise on rightmove. Do House Network do much marketing in your area?

Davesnave

I don't think it matters unduly if House Network have other properties in an area. When I was looking, no properties that interested me appeared on House Network, but I wouldn't have discriminated against them if they had. Like most folk, I did my search on-line, so I saw their adverts. I never purposely browsed their site, however.

Where I lived before, for sale boards were not allowed by local by-law, and yet people found the houses that were for sale with no apparent difficulty. Indeed, I expect most of us know our areas well enough to say "I know that place!" when it appears on-line. Anyway, there's usually a clue, like the name of the road, postcode, or at the very least, the district, and a map.

Oh, and unless one is repossessed or has a couple of hectares, the actual selling price will be displayed for all to see on Nethouseprices, Mouseprice, Zoopla and other similar sites about three months after completion.

If advertising on Rightmove, then those using Property Bee will also be able to track any reductions in real time.......Happy days!

gemima

Thats good to hear that you wouldn't have ruled a house out just because they were with an online agent.

I think most people (well those looking at our house anyway) would be doing searches online and like you say would know the area fairly well - I think the use of street view is very helpful as well as the maps.

We track houses on property bee too and it is a useful tool to have in my opinion!

Not sure really whether we can go through it all again though - it is so stressful!

googler

OP, did it occur to you that letting your neighbours know that you are For Sale may be a good strategy?

If they have friends or family who want to move to be close to them, your home would be ideal, and you may be able to secure a quick sale from one of them. One of your neighbours in a smaller house than yours may want to upsize to yours. etc etc

ash28

gemima wrote: »

Thats good to hear that you wouldn't have ruled a house out just because they were with an online agent.

I think most people (well those looking at our house anyway) would be doing searches online and like you say would know the area fairly well - I think the use of street view is very helpful as well as the maps.

We track houses on property bee too and it is a useful tool to have in my opinion!

Not sure really whether we can go through it all again though - it is so stressful!

We've just sold our house (July 27th) we used a local EA but had no for sale board - the neighbours knew the house was up for sale even though we had told no one - I guess it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that quite a number of strange people visiting our house = selling house. A couple of them asked if it was for sale - they probably had already been on Rightmove and seen it.

We negotiated the EA's fee and are paying 1% - the house took 4 weeks to sell.

I didn't mind the accompanied veiwings and I was normally there and answered any questions about the neighbours etc, and the EA was able to get more or less instant feedback - which was good.