Seeking partial refund of Estate Agent Fees - Advice gratefully received...

Sachs

My experience of reading this forum is that members tend toward a very passive, don't rock the boat and do what you're told attitude. It's a little odd in my opinion.

Your estate agent sounds terrible and you're right to be disappointed in the service you received. I would have been furious to receive that treatment but then I chose my estate agent based on their aftercare offer as opposed to the price, partly it depends on what they sold you.

Consider how much work the solicitor does for £1,500 and how much the estate agent does for £5,000. You should absolutely expect them to chase sales and provide good customer service. Those who don't go out of business.

hazyjo

googler wrote: »

OK, so you think the EA's fee is disproportionate to what the selected agent has done, but on the other hand, you're perfectly happy to call out three agents to your home and leave two, possibly three of them, counting the cost of visiting you (and others) to no avail.

The cost of two out of three agents receiving nothing for a certain percentage of their valuations has to be met from the fees charged to those who actually do pay them, surely?

Just trying to say the OP should have had three quotes so they could realise the fee was probably comparable - it's not like this one firm has ripped them off. As for the EAs, they fully expect to get rejected - most love the competition. No worse than getting three builders' quotes for a job. I'm sure the two not given the job won't go sobbing into their mug of builders' tea... It's just part of their job. They don't get a separate fee for that, it's just part of their salary. Might be missing the point...


I do think they work much harder than people give them credit for and there's often a panic on at the end and a good EA can keep the chain together/happy, but I just think the fee is pricey compared to say how long a solicitor has to study for, and the responsibility on their shoulders, and what they get out of it.


Just count ourselves lucky we're here. The US pay a fortune!

googler

Sachs wrote: »

Consider how much work the solicitor does for £1,500 and how much the estate agent does for £5,000.

Oh, please....

The EA does ALL the legwork and running around, the solicitor does none. The EA does all the work that generates no income, the solicitor only does work that generates income.

When did you last hear of a seller inviting three solicitors to their home to pitch for business against each other? Solicitors sit in offices and business comes to them. The public goes to them.

When did you last hear of solicitors leaving their offices to conduct any part of their business? They don't have to deal with the general public - the passers-by, viewers, casual enquirers, and other time vampires.

This is what eats up the time and the money. Not dealing with the person who does buyer, but with everyone who doesn't.

Solicitors don't have to deal with anyone but the actual buyer, the seller, and selected third parties such as lenders and surveyors.

stripeyfox

FWIW one of my local EA switched from the commission model and sold our house for a flat up front fee of £399! And they were brilliant!

googler

hazyjo wrote: »

Just count ourselves lucky we're here. The US pay a fortune!

As do many other territories. Pretty much every other civilised country, in fact;

https://tranio.com/articles/real_estate_agents_commissions_in_various_countries/

somethingcorporate

They could have taken 18 months to sell your house...would that have made you feel better?


We bargained hard with ours they were so confident they would sell it quickly. They agreed a low fee (0.75% I think) and 4 week tie in only. They sold it in a week.

Sachs

Something tells me if a us realtor provided the service described by OP they would out of a job pretty quickly. In my opinion your expectations for people you are paying vast amounts of money to are too low.

hazyjo

googler wrote: »

As do many other territories. Pretty much every other civilised country, in fact;

https://tranio.com/articles/real_estate_agents_commissions_in_various_countries/

Link not working, but guessed as much, but didn't want to say that in case I had remembered wrong.


I'm not really arguing one way or the other. I respect a lot, appreciate a lot, some are worth the fee, but - from my experience - lots aren't. I do think the OP expected way too much from their EA, not necessarily that they were useless.

googler

hazyjo wrote: »

Link not working

Forum is inserting a space between the e and s of countries - I have no idea why. Copy/paste and edit the space out to get there

Surrey_EA

Sachs wrote: »

Consider how much work the solicitor does for £1,500 and how much the estate agent does for £5,000. You should absolutely expect them to chase sales and provide good customer service. Those who don't go out of business.

Solicitors rarely work on a 'no sale-no fee' basis.

In order to cover the cost of marketing houses that don't sell, and the ones where either the seller or buyer change their mind at some point, and to allow the 'no sale-no fee' business model to continue, the £5000 doesn't just go to cover that one sale.

In terms of hours, in most cases, the EA will spend far longer working on a sale than the solicitor.