Haggling estate agents' fees

frankie

Hi

Has anyone managed to haggle down the percentage fees of estate agents. Or, managed any deals on fees such as high percentage for say 8 weeks then lower. Bonus for agent if buyer found within certain time frames?

LateStarter

I've managed to get the fees down from 1.5% to 1% - it helps if there are other agents around and you can say "Look I'd really like to go with you but X are offering a lower fee and I rate them as highly as I rate you. What can you do?".

Be polite. Be friendly. Be firm. And be willing to give in if you really want to go with a certain agent and they won't budge.

Best Wishes

eddddy

frankie wrote: »

Hi

Has anyone managed to haggle down the percentage fees of estate agents. Or, managed any deals on fees such as high percentage for say 8 weeks then lower. Bonus for agent if buyer found within certain time frames?

Yes, frequently.

I have also offered bonus fees for achieving a good price (within a time limit).

And go for a minimum contract period of no more than 6 to 8 weeks.



But... just something to think about... if the EA has lots of similar properties... you're paying the EA 1% but the other vendors are paying 1.5%... the EA may push the other properties harder than yours. Who knows???

Guest101

A good clause would be fees 1%, bonus of additional 0.5% is offer received with in 6 weeks, who goes on to buy the property.

[Deleted User]

We got our estate agent to use a tiered structure.. The more they sold the house for, the higher a percentage.

Of course you can haggle with estate agents! Everything in their contract is subject to negotiation

tea-bag

Do it yourself save £££

Hoof_Hearted

Online agent -- £500 all in.

mrsmazza

We haggled the fees down to 1%. Call the agents bluff, just say I really want to use you, but agent x down the road said they would do it for x, if you match it I will use you.

DRP

ringo_24601 wrote: »

We got our estate agent to use a tiered structure.. The more they sold the house for, the higher a percentage.

Of course you can haggle with estate agents! Everything in their contract is subject to negotiation

we did this:

1% for asking or over, down to about 0.8%.

penguingirl

We got a fixed fee which equated to 1% inc VAT. We get a 10% discount if sstc within 8 weeks

Prothet_of_Doom

My nephew is a senior negotiator in a big chain, and has always said "what's in it for the negotiator personally"


Lets say I want to sell my house both quickly and at a premium price, of say £200K.


I could easily sell it at £190K, and 1% on that is £1.9K, so I see £188.1K ?


What does the employee see personally of that £1.9K ? on top of his basic ? £190 ?


Right.


I'd suggest this : a 2% fee, if they achieve £195K, 0.5% if they achieve less, and if they achieve over £200K 2% plus a bonus of 50% of everything over £200K to go to the sales negotiator who achieved it.


So Sell it at £202K and the agency gets £4,040, but the sales person gets an extra £1000 personally.


So I see a smidge under £197K


I'd rather pay £5K and get £9 K more than if I only paid £2K


The other thing I think is that if they can't get a sale within 8 weeks, I should be free to walk away without paying a bean.


Anyway I suggested this to my nephew and he thinks I'm deluded.