Estate Agent Fees - Negotiable?

s_glover

We are looking to put our house on the market in the next month and will shortly be inviting several EAs to give a valuation.


After quite a bit of research we have a long list of questions to ask each one to help us decide which to go for.


I've seen advice in several pleace to aim for 1% + VAT fee. Most of the local (West Yorkshire) traditional EAs seem to be charging quite a bit more than this. Obviously we will try and negotiate the fees but realistically how likely are the EAs to budge on their fees?

DaftyDuck

Will depend how much they want your business, the comoetition, how pleasant you are, how busy they are.

In many sales, I have always negotiated, and always got agents to go down.

Edit... Errr down on their initial fee...:o

Davesnave

On the second to last property we sold, the agent we really wanted insisted on 1.25%, while their main rival on the other side of the town square was prepared to go to 1%.

Negotiations stalled, so we sighed and said, "Oh well, Joe Bloggs it is then..."

Half way across the square, the phone rang and a voice said, "OK, 1%."

Surrey_EA

s_glover wrote: »

realistically how likely are the EAs to budge on their fees?

Very rare for an EA not to negotiate a bit.

How much depends on the type of property you're selling, it's value, how much in demand the property is, etc, etc.

PokerPlayer111

Doorsteps = £99 fees total for basic selling package, just saying.

squirrel99

definitely negotiable, my EA went down from 1% to 0.75% just because I asked.

Rambosmum

We got ours from 1% to 0.8%. You can only ask. I asked at the point of valuation.

hjghg5

Yes - we just negotiated ours down. Helped that she let on how desperate she was for the house!

G_M

Don't just negotiate the fee.

Negotiate tthe minimum contract period too. 6/8/10 weeks max.

If they are no good you need to be able to switch.

But also bear in mind it can be worth paying a bit more to avoid a rubbish agent, so check what they are like and what they will do.

DaftyDuck

..... and negotiate what you are getting (press adverts, quality of details, photographs) BEFORE you negotiate on fee!

AnotherJoe

My last sale, the agent was absolutely certain he'd get more than £250k I was sure we wouldnt since this was in the days when stamp duty jumped when above £250 and no one would pay more than that until you got to about £265-70, since even £1 more added about £10k or something like that.

He said he wouldn't negotiate down from 1.25% as "it was worth it" so i said if he was so confident, why not 1% if the price was £250k or less since he was so sure he'd get more.

House went for exactly £250k.