Selling and buying houses

ReadySteadyPop

EssexHebridean said:

Look for an agent who's been established for a long while - the recently set up entities have only had experience of selling during the boom times - when they are faced with even a bit of a glitch in the market that becomes a problem. 

Oh - and being a first time seller is every bit as challenging as being a first time buyer! 

That would exclude anyone who set up business in the last 20 years, best way to sell a property is to price it correctly, use PropertyLog to get a feel for your local area.

jonnydeppiwish!

Local EA all the way, not one of the big companies. Local solicitors as well - someone you can go and see in their office.

curtis122

Thanks for the advice. Definitely confirmed we should go local with the EA now. Also good tip on looking to see which EA's are selling and even better sold similar properties in my area, never thought of that as your right they may have people who lost out on a property like ours. Currently live on your typical large housing estate where there are many houses all very similar so will take a look on the Rightmove, OntheMarket etc.

curtis122

We have decided on the EA's now. They are booked in to come round. We obviously will be asking their fee's but from what we've seen online from a general compare estate agent type site one is showing fess at 1.8% and the other 1.7%

I know you can negotiate but has anyone any tips for doing this and what realistically we should be aiming for. Some websites say aim for 1.2% or less which seems a big challenge.

FlorayG

curtis122 said:

We have decided on the EA's now. They are booked in to come round. We obviously will be asking their fee's but from what we've seen online from a general compare estate agent type site one is showing fess at 1.8% and the other 1.7%

I know you can negotiate but has anyone any tips for doing this and what realistically we should be aiming for. Some websites say aim for 1.2% or less which seems a big challenge.

That's going to depend on how much in demand houses like yours are. If they think they can sell it in a month they will be more likely to give you a discount than if they think it will stick with them a long time. You could look at similar houses in the area and compare price and how quickly they are selling. Also if you buy through the same agent ( I know you don't know if you will do that, but you can show considerable interest in properties they have available) you could try to negotiate a discount.
Rates seem to have gone way up, unless that's the norm for your area. I got 1%, also a reason to stick with a local agent because he had sold my previous house for me and I bought through them; so they knew I was an easy client to deal with ( ha ha not the same EA as I mention in my original comment here  )

Bigphil1474

We sold in August and paid 0.9% + VAT. When we had 3 EA's round in the October previous they were all pretty similar rates, think 2 were that and one was 1% + VAT, but knocked it down to the same when we said what we'd been offered by them. Anything above 1.2% (+VAT) is a bit steep to me. Check if their rate is with or without VAT.

Also worth playing them off each other. As above, we just told the last one, that the other 2 had offered 0.9 and they matched it.