Do estate agents get commision for surveys ?

grahambartlett

Hi

I'm buying a house and found an issue that was strucual. I explained this to the estate agent and brought round two parties who agreed with me. The estate agent said he needed a structual survey to negotiate with the seller and this would cost me 1000. I opted for my own survey and then the estate agent told me there was not a structual issue!

Do estate agents get commisions for surveys through their own estate agents? I'm dealing with Connells.

cheers

anselld

Probably!

... and you don't need any survey "to negotiate with the seller".

Yorkie1

Almost certainly they'll pick up a referral fee out of the colossal £1K you'd have paid them.

And you might not end up being the client, if the EA instructs the surveyor, so don't get the legal benefit of the survey.

And the EA knows your position. They act for the seller and not for you. Their role is to ensure you pay the maximum for the property. So you don't want to reveal too much of your position, ideally.

Well done for getting your own surveyor rather than taking the EA up on his offer.

TBagpuss

the agent acts for the seller. If you've got your survey, make your offer on the basis of that - taking into account what the problem will cost to fix. The seller can chose to reject your offer and to hope for a new buyer who is less careful about checking, or they can chose to accept / negotiate with you on your offer.

Since the agents will get a commission based on the sale price they have a vested interest in keeping the sale price as high as possible.

princeofpounds

Yes of course they do if you book through them. And it's yet another horrendous conflict of interest.

An estate agent works for people in roughly this priority ;-)

a) themselves
b) their firm
c) vendors
d) 'favoured' clients who have given backhanders. Sometimes promoted to c).
e) regular buyers

kingstreet

IMHO the survey arm of the estate agent selling the property should not be contracted by the lender to do the mortgage report & valuation, but I know it goes on.

A well-known firm beginning with "C" has a limited panel of lenders because these lenders all introduce valuation/survey business to the firm's survey arm.

Too incestuous for me. A vertically integrated monopoly designed to remove as much money from the consumer's pocket as possible;-

Mortgage & insurance service - fees + commission - limited lender panel and single insurance tie = higher commissions & reciprocal work

Conveyancing - fees

Survey & valuation - fees

and they have vendor and purchaser to go at in each case, also tieing-up other agents' buyers and sellers too with dubious claims of increased efficiency and "exclusive" products and services.

mail2z

I wouldn't touch the surveyors recommended by the estate agents selling the property with a barge pole.

Though surveyors are supposed to be providing independent opinion, it does not prevent a particular surveyor to be providing their opinion with a lots of disclaimer none of which are going to be helpful for you.

Actually the estate agent and seller should have no problem with any surveyor unless they have something to hide.