Has anyone negotiated a discount on estate agent fee?

t0rt0ise

We negotiated down to 0.85% + VAT so it is possible. The Estate Agent was very good too.

rik111

Yes do not what ever you do sign up with Purple Bricks....
I wouldnt even mention pb to other agent, just tell them 1% including vat, 6 weeks sole agency if you want it, otherwise your too expensive and we will look elsewhere.

Ally_E.

We had 3 valuations: Purple Bricks and 2 local agents. PB wanted us to do the viewings and fee is payable up front, so doesn't keep them that motivated. We pitted the 2 local agents against each other and managed a fixed fee that was a £1k discount compared to % fee. 

doingitanyway

I got a reduction of 25%. It saved me thousands so I'm glad I did. 

knightstyle

Well we had a good local estate agent sell out house a month ago, 1% with a minimum of £1500 both including VAT, house sold for £125k so we paid £1500 which I think is a fair price. Two other estate agents were 1.25% and 1% plus VAT
I think agents in more prosperous areas have much higher costs, rent, rates etc. so need to take a bit more but some are simply overcharging gullible sellers.

davilown

teachfast said:

One thing to watch out for is VAT. Negotiating 1% including VAT is worth doing of they won't budge on 1% (which is pretty low, to be fair)

Not really low - our local EA are easy to negotiated to 0.75 inc VAT though the one we went with is 0.9 inc VAT.
I suspect it’ll will be down to how much the how is valued at - 1% would equate to £7k

Octothorpe

Also concentrate on length of contract and notice period. Max 8 week contract, why do they need more if they're confident in selling?!

Ours included floor plan, premium listing and video tour.

We told them they were our favourite but a bit too high price. They knocked off .25%. Still more expensive than others but so far extremely happy with their service and communication!!

After trying to book viewings with other agents and doing some vieings we weren't impressed,  so glad we chose who we did.

1% and under fees....WOW! No estate agents are going that low round here except the rubbish ones 😂

thriftytracey

Lots of useful information here, thanks.  I am going to scrutinise the contract before deciding.  I definitely wouldn't go with PB although PB did advise that you don't have to pay the fee until sold.  Also I didn't realise there was VAT on top!  All the estate agents around here appear to charge 1%.  They all said EPC report and premium listing would incur a cost.  Never thought of floor plan I thought that was included.  Also not sure of "virtual tour" whether that is at a cost.  Virtual Tours are much better than photographs although some of them appear awfully amateur.  What's the best way to frame it?  "Is there any flexibility on your fee as we would like to instruct you?"  type of thing?

Aspiration

Some great advice. I’m with Swift Tracey.

I always find negotiations go better when I’m overly nice. I’d go with ‘We were really impressed with you and your reputation and by far your our preferred agent. I don’t want to mess around as we think your great, so what’s the best price you can do it for... 🙂 

I’ve also once before agreed a higher price if they got a high sales figure but with the way the market is now you hopefully may get a couple of offers and hopefully have lots of interest! Good luck OP

marlot

The last couple of sales, I've gone for something which gives the estate agent some incentive.
eg. 1% incl VAT for sale up to £x.  And a further 1% of anything they get above £x.
On one of them, we agreed that the extra would be split as a bonus amongst the EA branch staff.   My house got lots of viewings!