Did you negotiate?

view

Did you negotiate your % or fixed fee, marketing cost or home report fee (Scotland?)

If so, do you mind sharing what deal you managed to secure and your method?

We've negotiated slightly down on the marketing cost... however, estate agency were immovable on fixed fee for sale and home report...

Just interested to hear from others.

w00519772

view wrote: »

Did you negotiate your % or fixed fee, marketing cost or home report fee (Scotland?)

If so, do you mind sharing what deal you managed to secure and your method?

We've negotiated slightly down on the marketing cost... however, estate agency were immovable on fixed fee for sale and home report...

Just interested to hear from others.

I am in the process of buying a house. I tried this and I was always told that there is absolutely no room for negotiation with regards to the mortgage products. However, you may be able to negociate a lower fee taken by the mortgage adviser. Remember you can go directly to the banks (which I did). Don't forget to look at Money Supermarket.com, Compare the Market.com etc. What deposit have you got?

view

w00519772 wrote: »

I am in the process of buying a house. I tried this and I was always told that there is absolutely no room for negotiation with regards to the mortgage products. However, you may be able to negociate a lower fee taken by the mortgage adviser. Remember you can go directly to the banks (which I did). Don't forget to look at Money Supermarket.com, Compare the Market.com etc. What deposit have you got?

I'm selling thus 'marketing fee, % on sale and home report (as in Scotland it's the sellers responsibility) comment. Good to know from a buyers perspective as well.

w00519772

It may also be worth looking at some of the online estate agents. I remember driving around an estate where I am buying recently and the two properties by Hatched.co.uk were marked as 'sold and we saved to'.

There are some disadvantages to using an online estate agent I believe though e.g. not knowing the area as well. I may consider them in the future when I come to sell.

Please note that I have no affiliation to Hatched whatsoever. I am only saying what I saw.

view

We've chosen our agent, I'm just interested in hearing what deals or downward negotiations others managed

jm2926

We had the marketing fee reduced, and the % changed to only pay the full amount if they get the sale price we want. If it's lower they get a lower percentage. No change in home report cost.

To negotiate fees I normally let them talk and talk, especially about how they will get a great sale for the best price. Then ask them for a discount. Let them go and make sure they know your seeing other agents, then wait a few days to phone them back. Tell them you really like them, but the fee is the problem....

pawsies

I didn't negotiate much because I had the choice of 3 local estate agents. 1 I didn't want to go near, 1 I felt was more targeted towards agricultural and commercial property (and I didn't really look at when I was buying) and the last one seemed most professional.

I rang all 3 for a quote- the one I wanted gave me the same quote as the others so I went with them. Despite there being rightmove I felt I wanted a local estate agent who knew the area and as I was living far away they needed to do viewings so online estate agents were impractical. I could have haggled I suppose but I felt the price was fair (1.25%) and they were ok in the end. It took about 2 months to secure a buyer with a fair number of viewings inbetween.

Atomix

I did a deal where instead of paying 2%, we paid 1% and a cheque there and then for £500... The house we were selling was such an easy house to sell (we knew that) so haggled strong...

I'm pretty certain after the vat is counted we saved around £700-£800...!

It showed we were committed to the ea (£500 in) and our argument that the house sold itself was true it sold in a week or so...

Atomix

Also the house we bought was being sold by the same agent.

This helped push them to help sell our house, as they knew they had a guaranteed 2nd sale... And also helped a little with their fee for selling ours.

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jm2926 wrote: »

We had the marketing fee reduced, and the % changed to only pay the full amount if they get the sale price we want. If it's lower they get a lower percentage. No change in home report cost. .

Sounds like a good negotiation. We only had the marketing fee reduced, fee was set and they wouldn't budge on this...