House Selling - Money Saving Tips

northwest1965

shullen wrote: »

We are out of the lock in period with our current agent now. But they are trying to charge us £150 if we decide to change agent. I was considering going to duel agent however, so far not really convinced at what benefits it would bring by having two signs up and two descriptions on the same website. Anyone successfully sell though dual agents?

We're pretty much in same situation as you. Does 2 agents make you look desperate?
Why another £150?

deesonarnibal

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geordie_ben

Anyone had any joy of haggling EA fees in the Newcastle upon Tyne area?

retro.kid

ITtim wrote: »

We've asked some agents to come around later this week as we're looking to put our house on the market.

Amazingly the guy opposite has just put his on and with one of the agents we're seeing. Is it a bad idea for us to have the same agent. Its a bit annoying really as no one ever really sells down our road and it seems we're just going to be competing with each other now!

How did you get on? I'm in the same boat and wonder the same thing. We've been toying with selling up since summer and just spent the last few months making the place look great. Agents round last week, home report done, on market as of this morning with For Sale sign in garden.....

.... Then i discover via my EA that they have discovered my next door neighbour is putting hers on the market in the next few days as well - she kept that quiet :-( So two identical properties next door on the market. I'm being very reasonable with my price, so i'm hoping the neighbour isn't going to be undercutting me. I await with bated breath :-(

Mojisola

Marcus wrote: »

Greetings all. I’ve been using this site for a while now and have managed to save us a small fortune. Years ago I was an estate agent so I thought I’d see is I could write some bits and bobs in relation to my experiences in the hope that it might save people some cash.

Selling Your House

Methods to Save Money

1) Agents Fees
a. All Estate Agent Fees are negotiable. First, check through the local property paper. See which agents get the most business. Are any members of the NAEA. Busy agents who are members of the NAEA would be my first choices. Select the best 3 or 4 agents and phone them up as potential buyers. See what service you get over a week or so as a buyer - that way you’ll get an idea of how they will market and present your property. A good proactive, busy and well managed agent will still have time and resources to post/email you details and phone you with new properties.

Then get them all to Value your property. Tell each valuer that you have other valuations (BUT NEVER TELL THEM WHAT VALUATIONS OTHER AGENTS HAVE GIVEN YOU - AS THEY’LL MANIPULATE THEIR OWN VALUATIONS) and that you are looking for a fee of 1% with no lock-ins. Most agents will try to lock you in - so that if you instruct them to take your property off the market you will not contractually be able to re-market with another agent for up to 8 weeks (especially with corporates). Make sure you get this down to 1 week after written notice. If you are locked in and you then sell your property through another agent you will get sued for the fees.

Agents are sales persons - they will give you great reasons to lock you in and charge you more... but they also need your business - thus you have the power to ask for and get these things.

b. Once your property is up for sale keep an eye on your agent - mystery shop them ie call them up, give a false name etc. and tell them you are looking for a property that matches your own property’s description - see if they push for you to view your property - are they positive and energetic?

The Duel/Multi-Agency myth.
If you become unhappy with your agent’s efforts it may be time to sack them or go multi agency. Tell an agent that you wish more than one agent to market your property and they’ll try and push up the fees to staggering amounts (2.5%+!!).
Tactics - tell your current agent that you wish for other agents to market your property. Tell them that you’ll keep them as an agent only if they will keep your fees at 1%. If they will not, then sack them (you should only be locked in for a week). I’ve never known an agent not to back down in this situation - they’d lose potential business if they let you go.
Now go to some other agents - probably the other agents on your original list - and tell them that “my agent has agreed to let me go multi-agency and my current fees are 1% - would you like to also market my property at 1% multi-agency?” You can guess what the answer will be...

A 1 % saving on the average cost of a property in the UK (currently £150000) will save you £1500 before VAT.

Duel Agency means you’re marketing with 2 agents - multi agency means you’re with more than two. Agents will try and charge you more for either of these - especially in the case of multi.

2) Solicitor Fees
During you initial enquiries with estate agents, ask them for several recommendations each of good conveyancers or solicitors. You don’t just want the name of the firm, but also the name of the specific solicitor/conveyancer. Remember, some agents will have ‘arrangements’ with some solicitors and some will even have their own - so be warned. A good rule of thumb would be to approach solicitors (by name) who have been recommended by different agents - although some solicitors will have arrangements with more than one agent.

Phone the best solicitors and ask for written confirmation of their charges. Take note of how they treat you - do they speak in plain English, are they friendly and do you get their details as promised the next day. And once again - their fees are negotiable - there’s no reason not to ask your favourite contender to shave £xxx off of their fees if you have evidence of more competitive quotes from other solicitors... they may say “no chance” - in which case you need to make a decision as to whether or not the extra charges are really worth it.

A solicitor can make or break deals for you so shop around. It’s very hard to change solicitors once they start the conveyancing process for you... and it will cost you!

And finally - avoid fee busting corporate conveyancing firms - they will most likely slow down the conveyancing process - these are normally call centre and internet based firms. They can save you as much as £500... but as stingy as I am I would never use them.

I hope this is of use to you and I hope that my info is still correct.
I’ll see if I can write something for buyers when dealing with agents and the like.

Regards
Marcus

This advice was given in 2004. Does it still stand or has anything changed?

I'm about to sell a house for the first time and don't want to make any beginner's mistakes.

xtinataguba

hi marcus! This is really a helpful tips, thank you for sharing!

pricetag

Two thumbs up for this informative post. It was a great help.

clairewithgoldenhair

Hi Marcus, that is such a useful list on here about selling.

I wish I had read this before putting my house on the market in Feb 2012.

I don't know if you or anyone else can give me some advice but I live in Scotland and put my house on the market genuinely intending to move, but as the house has not sold ten months on (I know that's not unusual), but our circumstances have changed and we are both worried we could lose our jobs soon due to government cuts.

Now of course, getting a mortgage if we are made redundant is not possible, so we told the estate agent to hold on any viewings until our jobs are secure and we are in a position to move. The very next day I received a letter from the estate agent charging me £750 for marketing the property in the local newspaper and printing costs of the property spec.

I telephoned them to express hos upsetting this was but was told a withdrawel fee is on the original contract signed and if I am not allowing viewings then they are not to market property anymore and it would be withdrawn.

I was so disappointed about this, but wonder what the legal bit is here about having to pay this company for NOT selling my house?

What is their incentive to sell my property if they get £750 for doing nothing??

I went to citizens advice bureau - I saw a nice chap and don't want to sound unkind but he didn't really seem to know about the subject he seemed to think I would have to pay this fee as it was in a signed contract.

Of course when I signed the contract I intended to sell my house and not withdraw it, but should we need to stay in same home and not be able to move due to changing circumstances can anyone tell me legally where we stand?

Huge thanks for anyone bothering to read this - I imagine it affects more people out there than just us as houses aren't selling and things change in that time.

Claire

AllenMansurian

Well this is really useful article, I am also planning to sell my shop but I am getting nice prices. Can you suggest me the best websites on which I can post my advertisement for my shop.

gaikami

Hi personally I do Pinterest Analytics.I have just read your post.The tips are really great I love that.