Estate agent fees

minisaver

Hi all,

I'm probably going to be buying a house from a friend who currently owns it, so no estate agent is going to be involved. Typically, what sort of fee would the vendor pay to the estate agent when selling a house? We will soon be negotiating a price on the property and I want to know how much they will be saving by going direct, rather than through an agent.

Are there any other money saving tips anyone has in this situation?

Thanks in advance!
Minisaver

HugoSP

Fees tend to vary from area to area.

EAs around my area are charging around 2% plus vat. Some are charging less and some are wanting to charge a fixed fee.

Suggest you phone a few in your area and ask them what fees they charge.

Also, make sure you're paying the right price. EAs look at comparables in the area. Look at various sites that give prices paid and find out what houses are selling for in the area. Again, ask the agents, but pose as a potential seller. Ask about completed or exchanged transactions.

I find that agents are becoming more realistic now.

A_Nice_Englishman

Your surveyor will include a valuation in your survey (you are going to get a survey done, aren't you?) and this is likely to be more objective than one from an estate agent. If you just want a valuation, they will do that too.

You can find a surveyor via the RICS website. Look for one in your area whoe does Residential Surveys.

Magentasue

1-2 + VAT around my way. So between £1175 and £2350 for every £100k of house.

RickG

I’m not trying to be pedantic here, but there’s an important difference that affects the consumer. Estate agents don’t charge fees; they charge commissions.

A fee is for time and trouble, irrespective of the result achieved. A commission is for the result achieved – a sale. No sale, no commission. That’s good for the consumer, but there’s a down side – two, in fact.

• The estate agent is under no obligation to provide a service – incur time and trouble. He doesn’t have to try to achieve the result, but gets paid if he does.

• The lower the price, the easier it is for the estate agent to achieve the result (and get paid), but he gets paid very little less.

minisaver

Thanks to those who have left helpful posts on this thread! ;-)

I'll call round a few agents and try and get an idea of what sort of fees I'd pay if I was going through an agent.

Thanks!

Doozergirl

They generally won't tell you without coming to value your place, minisaver. You can but try!

Poppy9

:spam: alert!!

minisaver

I've got two coming over tomorrow to give me valuations, so I'll ask them how much they would charge as a fee.

My next step is to track down a good mortgage adviser, which is harder than I first thought. Does the quality of advice vary that much from anyones experience?

GMAC-UK

Is your property 3 beds or more ?, if so, then you are going to need a hip. I found a number of ways of saving more than half the price the estate agent will charge. I bought a LawPack hips DIY pack from WH Smith, with all the docs and instructions, but now having spoke to a DEA, she pointed me to a website with a step by step guide, with all the documents downloadable, and links to where to get all the information from. Theres also assessors online to help give advice, site is www.cntv.co.uk
Looking through the info though i think they still advice an independant hip supplier and still save on the hip. Thinking of having mine done through the DEA i contacted on the site.