What do estate agents actually do?

hazyjo

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Anyway back to my original point.... why do people think that the EA's commission on the selling price hasn't moved with the times. Why are people with more time and less money putting up with it?

I thought it had gone down generally. Agents don't have the monopoly they once did.

Obviously some agents will charge more. If someone pays it without shopping around and without negotiating, of course it will be high!

As far as I can see, most people know to negotiate or at least to get 3 quotes and marketing prices from EAs. They could have paid under a third of that price I expect.

They may have just picked the most prestige agents without looking at alternatives.

It's like me complaining about the price of a £5000 coat from a shop in Bond Street saying I could've got one for £30 in Primark and how I felt ripped off.

Mr_Singleton

onwards&upwards wrote: »

About the same amount of work as your relative did to earn the increased equity they will get from the sale.

Anyone that still owns a property bought in 1974 is going to be sat on a very hefty profit at today's prices.

Going back to my original question... is the EA doing 25 times more work to justify charging 25 times more for selling the property? and if not what reasonable explanation is there to explain the substantial additional cost.

Thrugelmir

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Going back to my original question... is the EA doing 25 times more work to justify charging 25 times more for selling the property? and if not what reasonable explanation is there to explain the substantial additional cost.

What services is the Estate Agent providing in terms of marketing the property? Brochures, advertising etc. The higher the price the smaller the pool of potential buyers. Presumably the EA operates at an international level out of expensive London based premises.

Mr_Singleton

Thrugelmir wrote: »

What services is the Estate Agent providing in terms of marketing the property? Brochures, advertising etc. The higher the price the smaller the pool of potential buyers. Presumably the EA operates at an international level out of expensive London based premises.

I'm not concerned* at what the EA charged as they were able to provide a buyer that bought the house** pretty quickly. Yes, there are EA's that charge less commission but they charge based on getting a high volume of sales. People don't generally walk in off the street to buy a house that requires a £650k deposit and then monthly mortgage payments of £24k hence 2 or 3 specialist EA's with networks of people who are interested and able to afford this sort of property.

My 1st property is now valued at 6 times what I paid for it (I sold it years ago) Yet when it's sold again the EA will charge 6 times what they charged me to sell it. Does nobody else find that odd?

Ok let's get away from property.....

You go to a restaurant to celebrate an event. You choose s £50 bottle of wine. Why does the restaurant charge twice as much to serve it to you than it does to serve a £25 bottle?

* yes I do find it slightly "how freaking much!"

** I've been asked to point out that the figures I've used aren't exact and might be a bit more or less than stated to protect the privacy of the former owners.

pinkteapot

Given how bad your relatives are at negotiating, the EA probably negotiated a sale price for them which was over £130k more than what they would have negotiated themselves...

JimmyTheWig

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

I'm trying to work out why Estate Agents are charging so much more than they used to and is it backed up by real work or just 'because they can'

I think it's because...

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

The relatives are quite elderly and wanted as little fuss as possible along with a quick sale.

JimmyTheWig

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Ok let's get away from property.....

You go to a restaurant to celebrate an event. You choose s £50 bottle of wine. Why does the restaurant charge twice as much to serve it to you than it does to serve a £25 bottle?

The total amount of service for the restaurant needs paying for somehow.
The chances are the table that ordered the £50 bottle of wine can afford to pay more towards that total service cost than the table that ordered the £25 bottle of wine.

ethank

The service for most agents does not end when the sale is agreed. Most agents spend more time keeping the sale moving forward. I would never not use an agent. Sales Progressers are worth their weight in gold!

Out,_Vile_Jelly

They're providing the same services as in the 70s, but aligned to a digital age.



If the proportion of the commission to the actual service provided bothers you that much, why didn't you help the vendors by negotiating a less ridiculous percentage for them?

SmashedAvacado

Its time to look at this in a slightly different way perhaps. If you own an asset of £5m and you want to sell it then you need to find a buyer. You probably dont know too many people who have that kind of money to spend on the type of property you are selling. Are you willing to hand over a very small fraction of the value of the asset you own to ensure that your property is marketed to the widest pool (in this case probably internationally as well as locally) of buyers available, on the basis that the more people that might be interested, the more likely that they are to drive the price up?

The bigger question on this thread should be why wouldnt anyone use an estate agent. Selling yourself is unlikely to maximise your return.