Estate Agent Fees for selling

jlojgirl

Hi there,
First time seller here!

So, we've decided to sell our house, and i've had a couple of agents round.

The first lady was an independant agent, no office etc, but we'd been recommended. She wasn't the usual Estate agent sales pitch garb, so it was quite refreshing.

THen we met with a bloke from Robinson Jackson last night. Very good, sales pitch was good etc.

But my question is.... how rigid are agents about their fees? The first lady was charging 1% tax inclusive. R&J are charging 1 & 1/4 + VAT.
If our house sells for the recommended price, that's a difference of like £1200.

DO agents as big as R&J come down on fees if you barter with them?? I'm not expecting them to drop to 1%, but at least make it a little cheaper for us?

MY plan was to make him sweat a few days, then ask if he'll can do any better than 1 & 1/4 + Vat!

Any advice?
Lou

whitesatin

I am sure if you ask and tell them you have had a better fee offered, they would reduce the fee to get the business. Worth a try.

DaftyDuck

I don't think I've ever paid the first upfront fee any agent has asked. Mind you, be careful of paring them to the bone. If they have one buyer and two similar properties, and always make a bit more selling the other, yours will languish.

Don't go by fees alone. I'd certainly expect a drop from the 1 & 1/4 to 1, but I'd then be expecting the 1 to drop a bit as well.

Little harm in asking.... but never take offence if they say they can't. If the slightly higher fee results in a £5,000 higher sale price, you are quids in!

DRP

easiest way is to tell them you'll go with them if they match the other offer...

ellie27

If you dont ask you dont get.

Tell them you have been offered a much cheaper rate elsewhere, eg 1%, and if they can do better than the 1% then you might have a deal.

We got ours down to 0.8% from 1%, but we decided to use an online agent in the end,

jlojgirl

Thank you to everyone for your advice.

I asked him last night if the rate was negotiable, and he sort of ummed and ahhd, so i'm hoping that after a couple of days, I can go back to him and ask him to make me an offer.

He was very keen on the house, as it's in great shape, and a perfect first time buyers house.

Think that I just need to write it down to make sense of it and convince myself!

I'm excited!!
Lou:j

socmwils23

We have just been in a similar position. I would advise viewing a house they have on their books so you can see how they "sell" houses. We did just that and the difference between agents was staggering. Some were great and others downright appalling.

With regards fees we got 5 agents round to do a valuation and told them all that fact. Once they were aware their "standard" fee was waived and they started making us offers. This might be that where we live there is a shortage of properties so the estate agents are really willing to compete for business.

Also like you we were told our house was a great first time buyers property that would have no problem selling. It was being told that by every agent that swayed us to an online agent. We saved a considerable sum and the house sold in 48 hours. Now this may not be for you but they are definitely worth considering if you think you could sell pretty quick.

[Deleted User]

We negotiated a sliding scale of fees; they got higher the closer we sold the house to the asking price - it was 'win win' to us and them - since we really wanted to encourage a sale, and one at a price we wanted to sell at.

cattie

My last couple of properties have been sold by an independent ea at 1% commission each time. Sales were achieved very quickly indeed.

There are about 5 ea's locally, one of them being a R & J. I found that competing ea's were all willing to negotiate a lower fee when I told them I'd been offered 1%. However, I stuck with my trusted independent, which I never regretted, especially as when it came to making an offer on a property I liked, (which is now my current home) which had only just had an accepted sale offer fall through, & the trusty independent ea counselled me that my offer was higher than the one the sellers had previously accepted at, so she saved me a few thousand £'s there as I tailored my offer down to the same amount.

socmwils23

cattie wrote: »

My last couple of properties have been sold by an independent ea at 1% commission each time. Sales were achieved very quickly indeed.

There are about 5 ea's locally, one of them being a R & J. I found that competing ea's were all willing to negotiate a lower fee when I told them I'd been offered 1%. However, I stuck with my trusted independent, which I never regretted, especially as when it came to making an offer on a property I liked, (which is now my current home) which had only just had an accepted sale offer fall through, & the trusty independent ea counselled me that my offer was higher than the one the sellers had previously accepted at, so she saved me a few thousand £'s there as I tailored my offer down to the same amount.

given the estate agent was employed by the seller id be pretty annoyed if i found out about that. I thought it was the agents job, as employed by the seller, to get the best price possible. Im not sure he should be telling you to bid lower than you had.