estate agents fees etc help!

john_white

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

£675,000 @ 2% = 13,500
Advertising = 2,000
VAT = 3,110

Total = £18,610

I think you would be crazy not to risk £500 on an online agent to save £18,000. You would also be crazy to pay 2%.

but...

if they did get the full 675k vs going online and only selling for 650k ... 18k well spent.

who knows, can't do both so we'll never really know. depending on the area there may not be many buyers at that level so may require a bit of work? Whilst most of us go online and search for ourseles not everyone does.

megadishu

I would negotiate on the fee or asked for a fixed fee. Negotiate a contract of no more than 8 weeks and check the notice period given and dictate what you want. A professional agent does earn their money. Advertising costs on Rightmove and PrimeLocation, newspaper ads, existing clients, might not even have to go on the open market ... just for starters.

We hate owners doing their own viewings - dread it as more often than not they do not say they right thing, many bore the potential buyers chatting on.

Insist that everyone from the agent comes to see the property so they know what they are talking about. Ask how they qualify an offer when it is in. They know how to negotiate to get the best price - what to say and when to make people sweat or not ...

A good agent sells the location. 60% of buyers do not know the area they are buying into - which schools are good, transport links, hidden community etc. etc.

An agent does not just get a good price, they also look after the sale through to completion. Before taking a house off the market seeing visual evidence of the mortgage and the deposit.

I talk to all the solicitors and other agents in a chain - checking the vendors have returned their paperwork, help them fill it in, check the buyers have paid for their searches, check the survey they are having, sign posts and warning signals when someone not returning calls, check again the chain with solicitors, agents. Calm the buyer down when the survey results come in on an old property - get in quotes for areas of concern, reassure the vendors, chat with the buyers.

Keeping the sales transaction "plates spinning" is a key part of the process. Having other clients in the wings should a chain fall apart - not often but it happens. A good agent will know of other people and we have got houses resold in 48 hours if necessary and kept chains together.

Depends if your agent is one that does a good job, but don't under estimate a professional agent. Before becoming an agent I had the attitude of alot of money for no work. Not true where I work - we work hard, look after our clients, going above and beyond, act as a counselling service, finance advisers, property development experts, negotiators, knowing what sells and how to advise clients.

Many property owners think their house is worth more that it is. They then decide the house they are buying is not worth what the vendor is asking!!! Oh what fun it is.

Like in any profession there are those that are good and bad - chat to the agent - get several quotes and give them a 6 week trial .... you might be surprised!! But we are one of the good ones - proven by repeat business year on year and then the kids of the vendor from 15 years ago growing up and coming to us to buy and then sell ...

Hoof_Hearted

Agents are, I am sure, wonderful. I would use one if they were not so greedy and devious.

moneypuddle

Try asking for a fixed fee. They will have to be competitive to get your business and they'll expect that. I negotiated 0.5% all in on my own sale.

googler

FireWyrm wrote: »

Gosh, those figures are astonishing. Wish I could earn £18000 for a couple of weeks work all told.

Oh please.

Do you really imagine that it's just payment applicable to the work in this one sale within the timeframe of a single sale?

It's not earned income, either. As with any other business, the expenses and taxes have to be deducted before there's anything left over to be earned....

Do you really imagine the showroom price of car covers just the raw material, and expenses relating to just that car alone?

FireWyrm

googler wrote: »

Oh please.

Do you really imagine that it's just payment applicable to the work in this one sale within the timeframe of a single sale?

It's not earned income, either. As with any other business, the expenses and taxes have to be deducted before there's anything left over to be earned....

Do you really imagine the showroom price of car covers just the raw material, and expenses relating to just that car alone?

No of course not. But £18000 for what is essentially a bit of marketing and PR is frankly greedy. The EAs I've had anything to do with simply turn up, let you into the propery, answer a few extremely cursory questions. In reality, I'm already half interested or I wouldn't be viewing in the first place. I've never once had an EA actually ring me and try to drum up business, they are almost entirely passive in their approach. I've already had a look at my propective purchase on the Internet, something that doesn't cost £18000 to facilitate at all. If I'm smart, I've had a look around the area, perhaps I know it reasonably well and I've already figured out that the layout is more or less to my liking. Apart from advertising in the window and handling the communication between the two parties, it's not rocket science. From a vendor point of view, I conducted my own viewings and who better to answer pertinent questions about average energy usage, council tax, schools, local amenities than the owner?

Most buyers view a house just to kick it's tyres. The solicitor handles the actual transaction. So, what does the EA do exactly, other than put a card in the window, print a few flyers if youre lucky and answer a couple of phone calls. £18000 is an awful lot of money for what amounts to very little and this was the point I was making. Granted, the EA themselves doesn't get that, but the business does. Seems like money for old rope to me.

googler

Again, you're missing the point when you consider the activity on this one sale.

The high income on this one sale - if successful - offsets the low income, and possible losses, on low-value sales, incomplete sales, and activity where the public expects EAs to give them their time for free.

You refer to merely 'putting a card in the window'- have you any idea of how much it costs to maintain a 'window' in the average town or city in the UK?

FireWyrm

googler wrote: »

Again, you're missing the point when you consider the activity on this one sale.

The high income on this one sale - if successful - offsets the low income, and possible losses, on low-value sales, incomplete sales, and activity where the public expects EAs to give them their time for free.

You refer to merely 'putting a card in the window'- have you any idea of how much it costs to maintain a 'window' in the average town or city in the UK?

The window is presumably attached to the premises upon which rent is paid and business conducted. You would have to pay the rent even if some other business was conducted. It is a business expense and one which should be budgeted for in a well run organisation. Unless you are renting a completely different window, it makes no difference to the daily cost whether there are cards or not while the premises is occupied. I don't see how there is additional expense involved here. As for £18000 offsetting the times where deals fall through, that is true I suppose, but try as I might, I still cannot see how an EA can have the brass neck to ask for such sums of money for very little actual work. I am selling a house, it is none of my concern that other deals have not completed and I still don't see why I should subsidise them. EAs are paid to do a job, my job, or someone elses and should be paid commensurate with the amount of work undertaken. If it costs £1000 to advertise my property, why should it cost £18000 to advertise a larger building. No additional effort is being undertaken for the extra money as far as I see.

Hoof_Hearted

FireWyrm, you could not put it better. Why should one's own sale cross-subsidise somebody else's?

I first heard about online agents on here and felt it was worth gambling £400 in the hope of saving a lot more. However, if there was a credible site on which one could advertise without an agent, I would probably do that. Having said that, I thought my online agent (no name, Googler) did a good job. In the end, greed will kill off the high street agent and then you can bet that online prices go up (as they are starting to already).

john_white

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

FireWyrm, you could not put it better. Why should one's own sale cross-subsidise somebody else's?

I first heard about online agents on here and felt it was worth gambling £400 in the hope of saving a lot more. However, if there was a credible site on which one could advertise without an agent, I would probably do that. Having said that, I thought my online agent (no name, Googler) did a good job. In the end, greed will kill off the high street agent and then you can bet that online prices go up (as they are starting to already).

2 things

1, if this agent is in fact too expensive then they will soon go out of business, but there must be a reason the OP wants to use them?

2. subsidising , well it happens all the time, everytime I go in to the supermarket there are offers on things I don't want, yet some things I need are not on offer, I suspect if there were no offers everything could be cheaper rather than a selct few items at massive discount.

Personally I think the no sale no fee works quite well. Yes you pay more but for the mass market run of the mill properties it is OK. Would I try online, not at the moment, I couldn't name website that isn't RM or PL.