House Selling - Money Saving Tips

Moneysava_wannaB

Great moneysave phoned a few agents got 5 valuations then 2 weeks later phoned them back and ask them 'I'm looking for an agent to sell my house for fees of 1% and no tie-ins can you help?' 2 where interested @ 1% rest said 1.25%

So £975 saved if it sells @ 195k which was the average price of all 5 agents before I asked about 1%
But I told my agent if you sell for over £200,001 I’ll give you 1.25% so far we've had 18 viewing in 2 weeks and 2 offers rejected @ 198k and 197k one of these is talking to their fin. Adviser Friday so maybe get 200k making a total of saved of £1000 but I probably would have put it on the market for 195k so I’ve really saved/made £6086.87

Many thanks

jonnydoe

You could've saved more with https://www.housenetwork.co.uk...

And estate agents valuations can be wildy inaccurate at times usually quite low for a quick sell (and easy buck)

byaru

Well done Marcus.
Isn't it very good when someone shares such useful information with others?
Very very useful!

wildjo_2

Anyone got any advice re negotiating power buying a brand new home from a National builder? Just awaiting a part exchange figure but new home is currently priced at £530K and is almost ready- what are the chance of getting under the £500 stamp duty threshold. Would like any success stories!!

chickencow

jonnydoe wrote:

You could've saved more with https://www.housenetwork.co.uk...

And estate agents valuations can be wildy inaccurate at times usually quite low for a quick sell (and easy buck)

I agree with jonnydoe - Housenetwork seem to be able to save you a fair whack, particularly if your house is quite expensive.

No more than £500 it's marketed as.

jennysnail

It sounds like a good idea to save money on estate agents fees as Marcus suggests. The only thing that would worry me was have I just !!!!!! off the estate agent so much by negotiating down to 1% commission that they would then not be interested in selling my house or care about what sort of service they provided. If people try to knock my professional fees down when I feel I am doing an excellent job for that client it does tend to annoy me somewhat and they get dropped down the list of priorities after that (I am not an estate agent by the way)

gallygirl

This has inspired me!!! I have 2 properties to sell (! now, 1 in a few months after decorated) - in same square. V v cheap area, so less likelihood of having % cut - but will be negotiating for agreement for reduction in 2nd property if I go with them for 1st.

Starsky2203

Can you offer any further advice Marcus to your already useful information?

We are currently liasing with 4 agents in my local area with a view to selling my house. Along the lines of your advice I have narrowed the 4 to a choice of 2. Today I tried to negotiate with them regarding their fees (both 1.5%) but neither seem prepared to move, despite bending the truth slightly by saying I'd been offered 1.25% by an 'unamed' agency.

Do you have any advice of what to do now?

Is it possible, and perhaps common place that where a number of agencies all work the same geographical locations they agree not to trash their fees by all agreeing to play at the 1.5%?

Thanks

Starsky2203

johncf

Hi,

I'm selling a house and have tried using the tips you've given to drive down the fees. I am having little success so would appreciate any further advice. In Cardiff, the typical fee seems to be 1.75%. I managed to get one of the smaller local agents to offer me 1.5% and tried to use this as leverage with the others. Halifax told me their rate was fixed at 1.75%, I argued that I have been offered a better rate elsewhere and they let me walk out of the shop with a whimper. Peter Alan, one of the large local agents, called their head office and got back to me several days later. "I'm pleased to say that we can reduce our fee from 1.75% to 1.7%. Shall I proceed with the sale for you?" I argued that he knew I had already been offered 1.5% elsewhere and if he couldn't at least match that, I wasn't interested. Again, I was unable to budge him further. Incidentally, when I first negotiated with this man, I told him I wanted 1%. He giggled and let slip that 1% was the rate they gave to staff. My thinking is that if they can sell a property for staff for 1% and still make a profit, surely they can reduce their rate for me by more than 0.05%. Do you think that there is some sort of price fixing going on in Cardiff, or am I really that bad at negotiation??

garbadine

Firstly thank you so much to Marcus for the useful tips at the start of this thread!

My partner and I are about to get our house on the market - called 3 EAs today, and have 2 coming on Saturday to give us a valuation, plus one the following Saturday.

Over the phone, only one agent would actually commit to a rate (gave me a rate of 1.25% on the basis that he thought our house would sell quickly - although I suppose he would say that to give us confidence in him!) Both the other 2 said that the valuer would discuss this with us when they came round - is this normal? Just reminded me a bit of double-glazing sales people (in that you can't get a straight price out of them for love nor money!)

One agent did ask if any other agents were giving us valuations, and who they were - which I told them (in hindsight, I can imagine this wasn't such a great idea perhaps, but didn't feel ballsy enough to tell him it wasn't really of his business as far as I could see!)

Any tips on how to get the best rate for us on our house, and on what to say (or not to say!) very gratefully received.

Thank you!