Estate agent's fees

thestens

We are planning to sell a house in a NE town, which has been rented out and now is untenanted. It is a mid terrace, 3 beds, bath, kitchen, through lounge diner, needs plenty of TLC, thinking about £55 000, max.
Been to see 3 agents today, one said £1250 + VAT, another said £995 +VAT and the other wouldn't say until he'd seen it! As a percentage of the selling price, this seems pretty high.
Last year we sold our own house for £300 000 and paid1%. I realise that proportionately this is more, but do you think it is negotiable or is that the going rate for cheaper properties?

[Deleted User]

Thinking in terms of 'effort' an EA might need to spend on selling a property, the cheap dilapidated 3 bed house might take more effort/time to sell than a nice £300k well spec'ed house.

BUT.. doesn't stop you negotiating, does it? We had our EA work on a sliding scale of commission depending on what he sold it for

Dollyrockerz

I sold my house online for just under £400 and that included my solicitors fees for selling.

Is that something you would consider? You have to do viewings yourself but you'll get a bigger cut of the sale

mrginge

Those fixed costs need covering whether you're selling a mansion or a shed.

Surrey_EA

Dollyrockerz wrote: »

I sold my house online for just under £400 and that included my solicitors fees for selling.

Is that something you would consider? You have to do viewings yourself but you'll get a bigger cut of the sale

I'm guessing the solicitor didn't need to do a lot of work!

That's astonishingly cheap.

Rosetinted

Estate agent fees are usually negotiable. For a probate sale my family's just completed, we 'haggled' (it was so easy, I wouldn't call it haggling!) our way down from more than £5000 to around £3000 in fees.

We had asked five different EAs to come and see the property and pitch for why they should sell it, what they'd put it on the market for and how much their fees would be. We ended up wanting to use the most expensive one (miles better than the others), so we told them that we'd like to go with them but their fees were £2000 more than any other quote and they instantly knocked £2000 off. Doesn't hurt to ask!

thestens

Thanks for that! You have confirmed what I was thinking - I'll see what they have to say for themselves when they have valued the property and negotiate from there!

average_joe

1% is usually the going rate for EA. Any cheaper then you are compromising the service you recieve. A good EA, will get you the best offer (even though they are supposed to anyway, but some dont bother), they will market the property on major portals, spend on marketing materials etc.

A good tip would be to ask about what properties they have actually sold in your area and do your research on the company.

maninthestreet

I suspect anything much less than £1000 as fees for selling a property isn't really worth it to an EA.

TBagpuss

Of course it is always possible to try to negotiate, but most agents will have a minimum charge which will apply if the property value is low, rather than a %.

jaynebrat

In our area (midlands) in general they charge 1% but this fee is only for properties worth above £150k. Any property worth less than this they tend to charge a fixed fee of around £1500+vat. They are very easy to negotiate with though.