Haggling with Estate Agents?

492800

I am curious how much is a normal amount that may be possible to haggle with an Estate Agent (London £400k property?)
We've only had one agent in so far, been told they are 1.65% and I am curious what peoples thoughts are of reducing that amount, and also to what a usual reduction would be? (Or am I just being hopeful that haggling happens these days?) )

eddddy

I find that an easy way to haggle is by asking for a price match.

i.e. Get a few agents in. Pick the agent you like best, and say you'll go with them if they can match the price of whoever is the cheapest agent. (Even though the cheapest agent might be rubbish.)

That often seems to work, but some EAs will stand firm.


The ones that stand firm might to use arguments like "If I let you negotiate me down on fees, it would show I was bad at negotiation. And you don't want somebody who's bad at negotiation to be negotiating offers on your property."

musehead

I found in my part of London, standard fees are between 1.5% and 2.0% (+VAT) and most are willing to reduce to 1.35%. One of them refused to reduce at all.

youth_leader

My sole EA was charging 1.8%.  I received a very low offer which she was trying to persuade me to accept.  I asked if she'd consider reducing her commission, she refused.  Buyer withdrew and I ended up going to another EA for 1.4%.

davilown

0.75 inc VAT and 0.9 inc VAT were what I paid on my last 2 sales - the latter only 2 months ago

saajan_12

Depends on how London is London.. In zone 3-4, my experience has been in the 1% + vat region 

Racky_Roo

I sold for 1% plus VAT in zone 5 last year. I haggled down from 1.5% on the basis they started the valuation saying they would have a buyer within days, so when we got to discussing commission, I said well if you think it'll sell that fast with so few viewings then 1.5% seems a lot for very little work. Turns out I only had 4 viewings before I got my asking price. Sold to a cash buyer so even the progressions team barely did anything so I was right about them not needing to do much work

Soot2006

I am terrible at haggling but even I was able to blurt out "I read online that I should haggle you down to 1%. Can we do that?" ... to which the EA laughed and said "of course, that's how it works" ...

kungfu_navs

it worth checking out the price comparison website getagent, it will give you some good intel on the EA's in your area, including all their fees and how close they achieve their marketing price. 

HSF87

It depends on the house - the higher value/more desirable the more willing they'll be to negotiate. But yes shop around find the agent with the best service and get them to match the fee. Or try to negotiate a sliding fee whereby if they don't sell after say 3/6 months it will decrease depending what they say ( agents will go oh yea it'll sell by next week - promising the world).