House Selling - Money Saving Tips

pamyoung

I am an estate agent, and the exact same thing happened to me with the agent I chose to sell my house with. (my firm are not located in the area I live in). Explain your grievances to existing agent. Last chance, I am unhappy with the start. What are you going to do about it. Will they be willing to place an advertisement free of charge perhaps 1st or 2nd week in Jan when hopefully you will pick up some strong interest. Also, say they have 1 month to make amens for their errors, otherwise you wil be kicking them out.

good luck I wouldn't change agents this side of Xmas

pamyoung

There is no standard terms for an agent. It is the individual agents policy to set say 8 / 10/ / 12 or even 16weeks sole agency. I have clients who have been on with other agents - the client has said to the agent I want to change the agent has backed down and said yes they will withdraw the timescale. It depends upon your agent if they will pursue you in a court of law if you sell your property privately. Most terms are "a fee will be payable to us if we introduce a buyer indirectly or directly" this means if it is a private sale, you might find if the agent can claim they introduced the buyer you could have a struggle on your hands. If it is a good agent, tell them your concerns, final straw, 4 weeks otherwise your out, you might get some free advertisements or feaures in your local press. Hope this helps I have been an agent for 18 years and see it from an agents and clients point of view sometimes a new agent and a smal price reduction can provide a fresh and proactive outlook.

Xtimesrichlist

gazm41 wrote:

I am loking into selling my house, however, the estate agents we have had round so far want between 1.5-2%. Our valuations have been between £82,000 - £86,500.

I noticed that most properties discussed on this thread are of much higher value so sould I still be looking to get an agent down to 1% even with a low value property? Or should I try to get a set price?

There is a property website that only specialise in advertisng properties that are £100.000 or less for sale and its free to advertise, you could save thousands in commision
http://www.under100thousandhomes.co.uk/

Red_Elle

I have just called an agent and been entirely unsuccessful in getting a reduced rate :rolleyes:

I am in sales myself, so quite willing to negotiate. However, because my property is only worth around £110,000 I was told that the rate could not be reduced. Plus they have a minimum fee of £2,200. Not sure I believe this, but it was a large national agent.

I have walked away, as it was the first one that I called, but am a little disappointed. Their standard percentage is 2.25. I said that that rate is comparible with London rates. I was told that London agents of their firm go down to 0.75% with very expensive properties, as they still make a sizeable sum. I suggested that it's a little unfair as the people that can afford to pay more, pay less, but the people who can't afford much have the percentage hoiked up.

Any advice or shall I just keep ringing around?

Thanks

1incomefamily

I've had a similar experience with estate agents in my area. I have very little sympathy for them why they try and rip you off and don't do anything to support you as a seller - what are they getting paid for? I had my property on the market for about 6 months, every viewing I had to conduct myself!!

In the end I gave up. I've now taken it off the market with the estate agent and have put it up for sale with a website off the internet. And best of all it was free! I had a scope around and saw that there are many firms offering free access or at small cost.

I had once before used the littlehousecompany.com to list my website, and that actually worked. I sold it through the listing. But they want over 100 pounds to list. I then found yoocan.com. You list for free, they give you a board for free, and put it on propertyfinder.co.uk (when will one of these free services list on rightmove.co.uk??). I think thie link to youcan.com is listed elsewhere in the forums.

Seeing as you are having so much trouble, try dumping them and go it alone. It may just save you a lot of agravation (no middle man) and a load of dosh.

Cheers

kacy75

Can someone tell me where I would stand legally if I had my home on the market with an agent, and side lined with my own advertising of the property.

Am I liable to pay fees to the agent if I sell independently?

Many thanks

Kerry

sucksqueezebangbegone

I have had my house advertised with the little house company for 9 months and have had three enquires which have come to nothing.I think the site is hard to navigate and this puts people off.

lynzpower

I agree about the little house co website being difficult to navigate, that is a shame.

Im thinking of selling at the moment, so gathering as much info as possible!! this thread is fab

CheekyLittleMonkey

Marcus

I am selling my house at the moment and I wondered if you could offer any guidance/tips regarding the situation I am in.

I bought the house for £162000 in June 2001, it was brand new/new build. I chose the plot and waited for it to be built and then moved in blah, blah...very happy, I was a first time buyer. I bought this house purely as an investment as its a 5 bed detached house and we have no kids. I work away most of the time in Europe as I am an SAP contractor so am away from home months at a time. Whilst I was away, my then husband was staying there, living there along with our cat. To cut a long story rather short we split up. When I came home one weekend he had completely trashed the house, no part of any floor was clean, fag burns, ash ground into carpets, take away wrappers all over the joint and spilled onto the carpets, dishwasher water stagnant for months, walls filthy, also found drugs everywhere. I kicked him out. We are now divorced. Because I work away its taken me almost a year to gut the house, repaint from top to bottom (magnolia) have all the carpets cleaned and front and back gardens sorted out (as they resembled a jungle) now it is finally fit for sale. At the end of October last year I got 3 different estate agents to give me a valuation and went on an average of the 3 and went with the estate agent who seems to be the best in the region, having the most boards up around the estate. I put the house up for sale at £270000. I have given the estate agent sole agency rights, at 1.5% with a 1 weeks termination clause. I heard nothing in November and December as they said that these are quiet months and it should pick up in the New Year. Now in January there have been a few viewings but no offers. We are now in February. Last Friday I got a call from the estate agent saying "you had a viewing yesterday, and the bloke that viewed it was very interested in the property but will not offer any more than £250,000 what do you say". I said I was not interested in the least, I am not in that much of a hurry to sell, not £20k a hurry anyway, and that in fact I was quite insulted at that offer and for him to look for something within his price range and to stop wasting my time. She said 'ok, thanks' and that was that. The house like I said is up for sale at £270,000 ono, if they had come with a realistic bid of say £265k or around that figure then I would have considered but I think offering £20k less was taking the p1ss quite frankly. Oh, let me add, I work in Finland at the moment and the weekends that I am home I spend with my partner at his house in London. The property I am selling (Chester) is looked after by my Uncle who keeps his eye on it, does the garden etc and sends my mail on. Its not often I get a chance to go 'home'. However, this weekend I did, I had a chance to catch up with my next door neighbor over a coffee, shes really lovely. Anyway she tells me that she got her brother in law to ring up posing as a buyer to ask about interest in the property and how much it was going for and the estate agent (apparently) turned round and said to him 'oh, she'll accept silly money' shes after a quick sale and theres no chain, I would suggest you put in an offer of around £245k or £250k'. As you can imagine I am quite livid at this news and now I don't know what to do. They are the best estate agents in the area (Thomas C Adams) and I don't have the time to vet another agent and to through the whole rigmarole again. Yes, I want to sell but I can afford the mortgage payments (I've been paying them for the last year and not lived there) but I'm not stupid, I'm not going to give the house away. I've spent a fortune getting it fit for sale. So the question is do I say anything to the estate agent because one cannot prove hearsay? Incidently I get one phone call at the end of the month to give me an update of the status.

I ask for your advice because as I was a FTB I am quite new to this game and I am finding it very stressful. Once I sell I am not looking to buy because I will be living with my partner for a while (he rents as he is also an IT Contractor) and then we will decide where in the country we wish to buy a house together.

Any advice would help. Thanks dear. xx

Salama55

Hi All
I'm totally new to all of this so if I do things wrong I'm sorry.
I'm going to put my house on the market shortly & have found all of your comments very helpful however, I'm a bit puzzled. Some threads are saying to get a few quotes before employing an EA but will an EA value your house for free if you haven't engaged their services yet?