Estate Agent Fees

BACKTOBACK

Am considering selling a property but don't really know what is a reasonable fee for an estate agent. They don't seem to do much.
The property value around £220k.
Agent wanted £75 plus vat up front for photos.
Then 1.5% plus vat from the sale.
Is this really the going rate?

GDB2222

I would not worry about that £75 bit, but I would not want to pay more than 1.5% including vat. Some people here have paid around 1% all in. 

However, if you squeeze the fees too much you can expect the agent to work harder selling other properties on their books. So, part of the equation is how quickly you want to sell.

BACKTOBACK

Purple Bricks seen to be a fraction of the price of high street agents. I know nothing about them though
 Are they any good

Neil49

BACKTOBACK said:

Purple Bricks seen to be a fraction of the price of high street agents. I know nothing about them though
 Are they any good

They are cheap for a reason. The initial cost may be low but the add ons (which you will probably need) can mount up rapidly. One thing I would definitely avoid is the use of their conveyancing services. This is all done online at some remote office by companies who bid for the business. From our bitter experience, the employees appear to be trainees and can be very slow. Cheap deals with PB may require you to use their conveyancing services and no one else.

We always use a local conveyancer who offers a no sale no fee service. 

Basically, read the small print, work out what services you want, cost it out to get a comparison. Like all agents you are entering into a contract. See how long you are tied into a contract with them and what happens if you want to terminate early. 

strawb_shortcake

We've had our house valued by 5 agents recently, all said their fees were 1% + VAT, one offered a slight discount as they knew us - this is loosely knowing us

twopenny

The people buying my house used Purple Bricks and it was a nightmare as they were all online and took ages to get back to my agents/solicitors. 
I wouldn't use them after this and in my area they have nothing on the market anymore.

I asked for a price from 4 high street agents. One offered a lower price for exclusivity which was fine. None had a time limit.
Pre pandemic the rate in South West was 2% and I negotiated down to 1.5%, 1%if I bought my new property from them.

I also used local solicitors and asked each for an approximate price. 2 didn't get back to me so they got the chop. One a paralegal gave me a rough idea immediately.

I found going local worked well as a lot of small problems crept up and they were able to deal with it promptly. Communication was easy.

I was never asked for money for photos or anything upfront.
Even asked if they would use one or two of mine as I could photograph the big garden at its best.

But I was surprised when buying how little they did or knew about the properties they were selling.
I'd seriously consider doing my own viewings even though that can be tough.

eddddy

BACKTOBACK said:

Am considering selling a property but don't really know what is a reasonable fee for an estate agent. They don't seem to do much.
The property value around £220k.
Agent wanted £75 plus vat up front for photos.
Then 1.5% plus vat from the sale.
Is this really the going rate?

You should ask 3 or 4 (or more) estate agents to do a market appraisal - and compare their fees.

And check each of their contracts - not all estate agents' contracts are the same. Look out for things like:

• Withdrawal fees (if they fail to sell your property)
• Ready, willing and able buyer clauses
• Minimum contract periods - although these can often be negotiated down
• Any other fees

i.e. Don't just think about what happens if the estate agent sells your property (and it goes to completion). Also think about what happens if:

• The estate agent is useless and you want to change agents
• You change your mind about selling, before accepting an offer (e.g. due to unforeseen events)
• You change your mind about selling, after accepting an offer (e.g. due to unforeseen events)

etc



Edit to add...

And when each estate agent comes to look at your property... treat it as though you are interviewing them. Each estate agent wants you to hire them, ask them lots of (probing) questions to help you decide which is the best one to hire.

km1500

I would second avoiding the ready-willing and able clause - make sure you don't have that make sure it is no sale no fee

I am more laid back about minimum contract length - pretty much all the agents bung the property on rightmove anyway so not a lot of point in changing agents for the most part

The other thing worth considering is the price you offerit. from experience let's say you put it on at a lowish price to get good interest and let's say it doesn't sell then before you know it zoopla etc are valuing your property at that price you put it on (they scrape from rightmove), so should you subsequently put it on at a higher price people will look at zoopla and think oh it is overpriced (i hope this is clear!)

Bigphil1474

We got 3 quotes from local estate agents. The first 2 quoted 0.9% plus VAT so 1.08%, the third said 1% + VAT, so 1.2%, and we showed them the other quote, so they matched it. 1.5% plus VAT sounds high.

Most of the work in finding interested parties is done by Rightmove in my experience, and other than doing the write up and dealing with enquiries and viewings, EA's don't do a huge amount. Most high street EA's aren't rushing round or making frantic calls, trying to find that perfect buyer for you, they are fairly passive sales people. 

Purple Bricks is fine for some people, not so for others. At least with our EA we could pop in and speak to them if we had any queries, and they also helped with properties we were viewing (although we'd found them all through Rightmove ourselves). I refused to use Purple Bricks for houses we might have been interested. Too much faff.

Smalltownhypocrite

'they don't do much'... then sell it yourself and don't pay an EA. 

If your not willing to do all that work yourself then you are admitting they do actually do a lot and have massive benefits and for that 1.5% is really not a lot of money.

Bigphil1474

Not sure that is necessary. There's a difference between not doing much and not doing anything. On a £300k property, the difference between 1% + VAT and 1.5% +VAT is a good £1,800. A significant some for most people.