Haggling estate agents' fees

googler · 13 January 2015 at 9:55AM

Prothet_of_Doom wrote: »

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

(Snip)

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

Tell him to look at the USA and other territories. There, the buyer and seller agents typically split 6% (3% each), and that's the agent's commission, not the real estate company's. The agent typically gets the majority percentage of this, and a minority percentage is paid to their 'broker' (the real estate co. office).

Mind you, for that, they don't just do negotiation.

frankie · 13 January 2015 at 1:37PM

Many thanks for all the useful replies.

Follow on question - go for the cheapest or 'best'. What is 'best'? are estate agents reviewed Trip advisor style?

Hoploz · 13 January 2015 at 3:00PM

Go for the best ... at the same rate as the cheapest!

I have got to 1% on a high value house and 1.25% on a low value flat in the past year.

No hard negotiations. After they have already talked themselves down e.g. "I will sell this really quickly for you, I normally charge 2% but as it is such a great property and I want it on my books I will do it for 1.5%"

That's the way I normally do it.

If you have a more challenging property or slow moving area, then consider the tie-in period. This can be important. You sign up at the beginning for sole agency at x% but if you are only tied in for a short time eg 6 weeks then you can switch or go multi. Sometimes they try and sign you up for 12 or even 16 weeks and you are stuck with them after the initial rush with nothing going on

CathA · 13 January 2015 at 3:15PM

I got an estate agent to sell my property for £800 flat rate. I got all the agents round, played one off against the other, job done! Admittedly the agent had been more into rentals and was just moving into sales but even so it was a good result. Just tell them you'll put it online and do it yourself if they are not prepared to negotiate. My hubby said he's never seen an estate agent so close to tears before, lol.

kleapatra · 13 January 2015 at 3:18PM

I've had 2 valuations done today (one more to go later!) and neither would charge a % fee - they both said they only do fixed fee as their regulator says they have to do this (?) They are both big chains in a big town. This seems so unfair - one of the agents fees works out at 2.07% and the other 1.5% if they sold at asking price. Just one more valuation to go - and I already know thats a fixed fee as its an online estate agent!