Death of the estate agent?

Melissa177

Why do we hate EAs so much in the UK?

There is a great chapter in Kate Fox's book "Watching the English", whereby she says that EA's have, by the nature of their job, to pass judgement on the things that we hold most dear, which are our houses.

BrixMorta

emmalt wrote: »

Assuming they were the same (percentage wise), 10 years ago the house my OH bought would have incurred, @ 2%, EA fees of £1200. Recently the same house was sold again and the fees would have been £4200.

I don't remember anything else rising that much in price over 10 years!

10 years ago EA’s could easily charge 2.25% for a sole agency. If the truth be known, today the average fee is closer to 1%. So with increased competition & lower fees the actual income potential is actually less in todays market.

Melissa177

In America, the fee is around 6% :eek:


There is a lot more competition these days amongst EAs, which drives the fees down.

BrixMorta

coal9011 wrote: »

I hope so! These "fat cat" estate agents have been drinking their cream for far to many years!

I can think of no other occupation (you can't call it a profession) where the rewards are so great for doing so little work.

This common misconception is that the EA does very little for their fee. Well, this is not the point. It's not about £ per hour. Solicitors and Accountants charge per hour EA's dont, they operate a 'no sale - no fee' policy. It is precisely this fundamentally different policy which brings about fees which simply cannot be justified on a £ per hour basis.

Because the agent earns nothing from an abortive sale, despite the amount of money already spent on marketing etc, those who successfully sell through an EA are effectively paying the fees of those who dont.

The best way to look at fees, is to accept that you will be paying an amount, which wiil be agreed upfront, and not paid until you move.

This sum of money is to tap into the ready, willing and able list of buyers that the estate agency has spent a fortune attracting onto their books. On top of this you will benefit from their time and expertise during negotiation and subsequent progression of the sale.

It's no different really than an antiques auction house charging 5% to sell a painting for say half a million £ and in their case i think they also charge the buyer as well! You could argue that's a lot of money for a few minutes in a bidding room.

Poppycat

That may be so but houses prices tend to be lot more here, so percentage wise it more than covers it. For many years EA could sit on there backside and do nowt the house sold themselves so they got a wad of money for basically little work

Melissa177 wrote: »

In America, the fee is around 6% :eek:


There is a lot more competition these days amongst EAs, which drives the fees down.

PasturesNew

My house was for sale for 1 year. Over that time I had 30+ viewers.
With talking to the people, making the appointment, turning out, showing my house to them, getting back to their office, contacting the viewer to follow up, I figure they must have worked 1.5 hours per viewing. With an EA salary of £12k, with employer's NI and holiday pay etc, this has to be £10/hour. So £450s worth just of human time on the viewings.

My house was advertised in about 3 newspapers every week. 150 adverts. Even if I were only paying £5/week (no idea how much it WOULD cost) this would have been about £750s worth.

It was on rightmove (no idea what the charges are for this to be honest).

They answered the phone during office hours - meaning I didn't have to take all the enquiries.

They had my house in their high street window for all and sundry passing to see.

They mailed out my details to their list every fortnight/month in their Property Listing sheets.

If I'd had to just answer the phone calls and do the viewings I'd have given up after 2 months and never got round to selling it.

While I do begrudge their final bill of about £4000, I begrudge the Govt's VAT I also had to pay (£700) - especially as they'd already pocketed nearly £8k in stamp duty. And a further portion of VAT on my solicitor bill!

I feel in my instance the agent were worth the money. They never tired of marketing it. Were always there to answer the phone. And worked hard for it. THEY sold my house. I couldn't have done it on my own.

dolce_vita

Poppycat wrote: »

For many years EA could sit on there backside and do nowt the house sold themselves so they got a wad of money for basically little work

Correct.

When things are booming and houses practically sell themselves no one mentions fees because everyone is happy - sellers, buyers and EAs and they go on about how good they are.

It's only in a stagnant or falling market that EAs become exposed as little more than salesmen with few, if any, qualifications or skills.

They then try to justify the high fees by saying how tough it is selling houses and that they deserve their fees.

It's all bullsh1t. They fuel the fires of HPI and reap the rewards. Then when things turn the other way start whinging about how hard they have it.

Bunch of chancers the lot of them.

UK007BullDog

The EA's have nothing to worry about all those websites. I used some of them but they did not work for me at all when I used them. Emailed lots of property owners and did not get one response.

So until the communications between seller and potential buyer have been sorted it is not going to make an impact to the EA's.

bterich

I think it's ultimately a good thing, Estate Agents will now have to "pull their socks up" and improve the service they offer to sellers and buyers, and to defend the large fees they charge.

I have never had a good experience with an Estate Agent (whether it be Selling, Buying or using them for finding tenants or rental management). I now only do it privately and would recommend it to anyone. You have complete control and there are no middlemen to get in the way, and of course you can save thousands of pounds.

In my opinion using companies such as homesaint.co.uk who target specific areas is the way forward.

MissMotivation

coal9011 wrote: »

I hope so! These "fat cat" estate agents have been drinking their cream for far to many years!

I can think of no other occupation (you can't call it a profession) where the rewards are so great for doing so little work.

Do you know what? I'm so bored of these "estate agents do no work comments". You try working an average of 50 hours per week....for nothing....if we don't sell anything.....name me one other profession that does this???

They make me laugh....especially coming from people who obviously have no experience of selling property.

And why can't we call it a profession, I've trained, got qualifications, experience and and damn good at what I do.

Anyway must dash got 2 more appointments to do before I go home and finish off paperwork and then prepare for working the whole weekend!!