How much are EA fees?

Octothorpe

I have seen people saying that you shouldn't be paying more than 1% for estate agent fees.

Just wondering if that's correct and how have people managed to get their fees and contract tie in length reduced?

hazyjo

Agree (in many areas).

Get 3 EAs round. Ask their fees (obviously). If more, ask if that's negotiable and say you didn't want to pay more than 1%. Once one agrees, play one off against the other.

Just say you don't want to sign up for more than 8 weeks.

moneysavinghero

I didn't have to do anything, just did the normal get 3 agents in to value the property. One was 0.75%, one was 1% and the other one was higher but was suggesting the property was worth £40k more than it was worth. The 0.75% was from the most realistically priced EA.

princeofpounds

Totally depends on your local competitive environment, the services being provided (it's not always just rightmove listing and a board!), and the property involved. It is often possible to get 1% fees, but that's not always the case.

The best thing to do, as ever, is make it a competitive situation and shop around.

How do you get your terms improved? You ask for it. It helps a lot if you can truthfully say that someone else has matched or offered better. Often the answer is yes, sometimes it's no.

Thrugelmir

hazyjo said:

Just say you don't want to sign up for more than 8 weeks.

Sometimes it's not worth the trouble taking on the business. 

AdrianC

It's possible to over-focus on the price, and forget the value.

On the average-price house sale, the difference between 1% and (say) 1.3% is less than a grand. A half-decent EA will get you a sale quicker and for more than an incompetent numpty, even before considering stress.

Then consider exactly what's included... It wouldn't be hard for an EA to ryanair a low headline fee by chiselling various details of the listings or their service into paid options.

Natbag

Don't forget, many will charge VAT on top of the % fee, so an additional 20% on the total.

hazyjo

Thrugelmir said:

hazyjo said:

Just say you don't want to sign up for more than 8 weeks.

Sometimes it's not worth the trouble taking on the business. 

Thankfully they've always agreed. If they can't find a buyer in two months, I want the choice to go elsewhere. If that's too much trouble for them, I don't want them either Last one was around 12 weeks and I didn't even mention it but he jumped straight in saying they'd be offering 6 weeks. Took longer than that, but I was happy with them so didn't change.

amandacat

I got a few round, the prices ranged from 1.4 to 3%. In my area the cheapest I got was 1% plus VAT (so 1.2) after some negotiation.
My adjoining neighbour went on the market just after we sold, they used the 3% one and I thought they were mad but they got 20k more for their house than we did and they were identical houses. I thought my EA was amazing as my house sold for asking price the day after it went on Rightmove but in hindsight it’s because they probably undervalued my house for a quick sale and also cancelled 7 other viewings rather than suggesting they still go ahead to see if we got any better offers. Partly this was my fault as I should’ve challenged my EA but I got wrapped up in selling my house so quick and they told me I wouldn’t achieve asking price so I was elated when I did. 

The neighbours EA  clearly were better at negotiating and pricing the house and understanding the market. 

The morale of my story is cheapest isn’t always best, look at reputation, % of asking price achieved etc. I probably lost money going with the cheapest. 

Scotbot

Depends on the property value. Where I live a 4 bed detached starts at 500k so that would be 5k in fees. No way EAs could charge that when PB are charging  closer to 1k. Other EAs are advertising at 2k.

houghton91

We knew we needed every penny when we moved so we went with Strike. House was valued, on the market and offer above asking accepted within 7 days of first contact. Obviously we were very lucky and the house did sell itself, but if you're in their coverage area it might be worth seeing if they can help you.