Should I choose a fixed fee estate agent?

sellingup_2

I'm selling up but I don't want to pay the commission which is 1.5% or even 2% that the local agents in my area are asking. For me that would cost more than £10k plus the vat and seeing as I am only paying the solicitor less than £1k it just seems way too much to pay an estate agent.

So then I'm thinking Purplebricks looks a lot cheaper at £800 but their local expert seems to cover quite a lot of postcodes so not sure if he really is that local and will know my road.

Ideally I would like a middle ground of a local agent that would do a flat fee that's a bit more reasonable, e.g. £2k to £3k. Does anybody else think that is about a fair amount or am I missing something and should I just pay the %?

Mickygg

If your local EAs are charging 1.5% they wont do a low fixed fee. 2% is crazy high.

I don't know about purple bricks. i always use local agents but look for 1%. To get 1% I always have to negotiate.

Have you haggled? My local area initially say 1.5% everywhere.

eddddy

Price is only one factor - you need to assess how good each EA is at selling houses.

For example,

- will some EAs be better at negotiating-up offers?
- will some EAs work harder to progress a difficult sale?

An EA who can persuade a buyer to offer £5k more might be worth their more expensive fee. An EA who stops a difficult sale falling through might also be worth a higher fee.

When EAs come to look at your house, you have to 'interview' them hard, to make your judgement.

And specifically ask them to justify their fee structure - whether it is commission or fixed fee.

hazyjo

I've not paid more than 1% (not for decades anyway).


Online agents I've seen recommended on here are eMoov and housenetwork. There was a favourable one for Purple Bricks too the other day I think.


I will be using an online one next year. Do they need to know much about the area? You'll (presumably) be doing the viewings so can hopefully answer anything people want to know.


Jx

sheff6107

sellingup wrote: »

So then I'm thinking Purplebricks looks a lot cheaper at £800 but their local expert seems to cover quite a lot of postcodes so not sure if he really is that local and will know my road.

Purple Bricks are actually very expensive.

https://www.urban.co.uk/seller-packages do from £450.

cjm888

Haggle. My local agent originally wanted 1.5%

In the end we agreed a sliding scale starting at 0.6% then 0.8% and 1% for a high end price. They got the 0.8% in the end. Although this was back in Feb in a hot area and so they were desperate for the business as was their competition which we used in our negotiation tactics..