Purple Bricks warning

G_M

Going off on a tangent, but still on the comparison of online Vs traditional EAs, I'd be genuinely interested in understanding their costs better.

For context I've just Completed a sale and by agreement my solicitor paid my (trad) EA from the sale receipts. I was embarrassed on his behalf to see from his Completion Statement that the EA fee was more than 10 times his own - how galling for him! In contrast to the EA, he is highly trained. He acted professionally and efficiently throughout, and was a pleasure to do business with. The EAs were fantastic at signing us up, saying all the right things, but were worse than useless throughout a 3 month process.

So given that my feeling is they didn't deserve such a fee I'd be interested to know how much was for their costs and how much was profit? eg:

* rough cost to list on Rightmove, local paper etc
* cost for brochures/other marketing material
* costs for board outside house
* how many 'uncharged' clients (who never Completed) does a 'chargeable' client have to subsidise?

These are of course also relevant when comparing with online agents.

Anyone with inside knowledge (Surrey_EA )?

Surrey_EA

G_M wrote: »

Anyone with inside knowledge (Surrey_EA )?

I can give it a go!

* rough cost to list on Rightmove, local paper etc
Rightmove is approximately £1000 per office, per month. There will be variations, as like EAs, Rightmove are prepared to negotiate.
Unsurprisingly local paper advertising has come down in price a lot over the last 10 years. We're paying around about £500 for a double page in a separate colour supplement.

* cost for brochures/other marketing material
We cover the cost of professional photography, floor plans, EPC and professionally printed brochures. On average about £500 per property.
* costs for board outside house
A while since I've ordered some, but I think about £50 - these can obviously be re-used.
* how many 'uncharged' clients (who never Completed) does a 'chargeable' client have to subsidise?
Now we're in out quiet period of the year I really should get the calculator out and do some figures. As a rough guess every one charged client will have to subsidise one unchanged client, where the sale didn't go through for one reason or another.

These are of course also relevant when comparing with online agents.

[/QUOTE]

G_M wrote: »

Going off on a tangent, but still on the comparison of online Vs traditional EAs, I'd be genuinely interested in understanding their costs better.

For context I've just Completed a sale and by agreement my solicitor paid my (trad) EA from the sale receipts. I was embarrassed on his behalf to see from his Completion Statement that the EA fee was more than 10 times his own - how galling for him! In contrast to the EA, he is highly trained. He acted professionally and efficiently throughout, and was a pleasure to do business with. The EAs were fantastic at signing us up, saying all the right things, but were worse than useless throughout a 3 month process.

So given that my feeling is they didn't deserve such a fee I'd be interested to know how much was for their costs and how much was profit?

It is obviously difficult to compare the two side by side, as they are so different.

That seems quite a high ratio, I would have said in most cases our fee is about 3 times what the solicitor charges, and we work on a 'no sale, no fee' basis, where many of them do not. The solicitors I know well tell me it is not unusual for each of them to have 100 - 120 files open at any one stage.

Even a very busy EAs office would be doing well to have that kind of turnover between all of their members of staff.

This is likely to fall on deaf ears, but estate agency is not quite as profitable as some may think!

G_M

Thanks surrey - interesting.

Though a per property price would be helpful eg Rightmove £1000 per office is meaningless without knowing roughly how many properties an office advertises!

And the board may cost £50 (each? a job lot?) but presumably you pay a guy to drive around installing them - somehow I don't see you doing that on your day off!

The high ratio in my case was because it was a relatively high value property, and the EA charged a % whilst the solicitor charged a fixed fee, based on work involved rather than sale price, which seems fairer.

Surrey_EA

G_M wrote: »

Thanks surrey - interesting.

Though a per property price would be helpful eg Rightmove £1000 per office is meaningless without knowing roughly how many properties an office advertises!
It varies, in our particular case we have about 40, relatively evenly split between currently available and under offer but not yet exchanged.

And the board may cost £50 (each? a job lot?) but presumably you pay a guy to drive around installing them - somehow I don't see you doing that on your day off!
QUite right! £50 per board to buy it in the first place, then £4 per movement

The high ratio in my case was because it was a relatively high value property, and the EA charged a % whilst the solicitor charged a fixed fee, based on work involved rather than sale price, which seems fairer.
That seems a little unusual on the solicitors part. My solicitor friends tell me that they normally charge more for more expensive properties as their insurance premium goes up with the increased risk

The sale of a freehold property, which is registered title, with no related purchase, is about as easy as it gets in conveyancing.

It sounds like you got a very good deal from your solicitor, and perhaps paid the EA a little too much? But presumably you knew, at least approximately, what the EA fee was likely to be when you instructed them?

eddddy

Surrey_EA wrote: »

* rough cost to list on Rightmove, local paper etc
Rightmove is approximately £1000 per office, per month. There will be variations, as like EAs, Rightmove are prepared to negotiate.
Unsurprisingly local paper advertising has come down in price a lot over the last 10 years. We're paying around about £500 for a double page in a separate colour supplement.

G_M wrote: »

Though a per property price would be helpful eg Rightmove £1000 per office is meaningless without knowing roughly how many properties an office advertises!

Although... as it's a "per office" price, what this also means is the marginal advertising cost for each additional property sounds like it's £0.

i.e. if you took on another 5 properties (or lost 5 properties), your advertising bill wouldn't change.

Surrey_EA wrote: »

* cost for brochures/other marketing material
We cover the cost of professional photography, floor plans, EPC and professionally printed brochures. On average about £500 per property.

I'm guessing you deal in £1m+++ properties. In the sub £300k market, it's often an EA with a camera, and a colour printer attached to a PC in the office.

Perhaps a better indicator is...

How much a solicitor earns per year vs how much an EA earns per year.

And/or...

How much the owner of a firm of solicitors makes vs how much the owner of a firm of EAs makes.

Payscale.com's research suggests that...

• An EA earns £13,052 - £41,922 pa
  
• A solicitor Earns £23,337 - £60,258 pa

http://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Job=Real_Estate_Agent/Salary
http://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Job=Solicitor/Salary


(Although, I suspect SurreyEA might have a laugh about those numbers as he drives home to East Horsley in the Lexus LS!)

Surrey_EA

eddddy wrote: »

Although... what this also means is the marginal advertising cost for each additional property sounds like it's £0.

i.e. if you took on another 5 properties (or lost 5 properties), your advertising bill wouldn't change.

Correct.

eddddy wrote: »

I'm guessing you deal in £1m+++ properties. In the sub £300k market, it's often an EA with a camera, and a colour printer attached to a PC in the office.

Absolutely spot on!

However, have worked in a variety of different firms/offices over the last 20years. When I started I was using a b & w copier, and sticking colour pictures on with double sided tape!

At the moment our range of available houses is £650k - £2m.

eddddy wrote: »

Perhaps a better indicator is...

How much a solicitor earns per year vs how much an EA earns per year.

And/or...

How much the owner of a firm of solicitors makes vs how much the owner of a firm of EAs makes.

Payscale.com's research suggests that...

• An EA earns £13,052 - £41,922 pa
  
• A solicitor Earns £23,337 - £60,258 pa

http://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Job=Real_Estate_Agent/Salary
http://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Job=Solicitor/Salary

It's always tricky with stats like this. Some EAs in my town with 2/3 years experience would be delighted with £30kpa, whilst others who've been at it longer would think that £41,922 doesn't cover the school fees.

There are huge variances between firms and even individuals within each firms. This of course will apply to solicitors too.

eddddy wrote: »

(Although, I suspect SurreyEA might have a laugh about those numbers as he drives home to East Horsley in the Lexus LS!)

Haha! Not quite in that league!

Not quite ready for the dull suburbia of East Horsley yet, even if I could afford it!:beer:

HB58

Surrey_EA wrote: »

Would you mind giving a little more info on how this works in practice? I'm genuinely interested.

I realise you don't mean literally 24/7, but do you have contact with the same individual 7 days a weeks?

How much local knowledge does the PB agent have?

I don't remember how we made the initial contact with PB but suspect it was via their website. The local agent arranged to come round, view and discuss. He gave us a price that was £20000 lower than the bricks + mortar agency but we had felt that was a bit high anyway (property sold about in the middle, just short of £230000). He said he had worked in the area for many years and seemed to have a good knowledge of it. He left us with some info and to make up our mind.

At around 8pm on the Sunday evening we decided to go for it and pressed the 'sell' button on the PB website. Mark phoned us about 10 minutes later and arranged to come round the next day to take photos and measurements.

Our prospective buyers came to view on Sunday afternoon and made an offer via the PB site. I pressed the 'PB please negotiate for me' and, again, Mark phoned me within a few minutes.

We haven't needed any contact since then but have Mark's mobile number and can also contact him via the PB site if need be. I don't know what the arrangements are if/when he is away.

HTH

Chloe86

I have had my house up for sale with purple bricks for 8 months now, today I called our agent Alan who told me he left 6 months ago! Where is the phone call introducing me to my new agent? Online I changed my price of the property “in excess of £270,000” the advert says the property is asking price £270,000! I’ve left messages, emails and no one is getting back to me! Now I’ve had an email through saying I owe Close Brothers money! I asked my agent at the start that until the property is bought with pb I don’t have to pay anything, he said no!! I wouldn’t recommend this company to anyone.

seven-day-weekend

We just went with a well-respected high street agent who knew the area. The fees may have been slightly more than the online ones, but the service was second to none.

Would not go with an online agent who knows nothing at all about our area.

economic

AS the old saying goes - you get what you pay for.