HugoB

Hello all,

We are just getting quotes to put the house on the market. So far we have been quoted 1.75% commission and an 8 Week sole agency agreement.

What sort of deals did you get? did you manage to haggle the commission any lower, have you got any haggling tips for us?

Best regards

Mr Hugo B

bridiej

We haggled slightly with the agent we chose and got them down from 1.75% to 1.5% - not much, but it works out another £400ish in our pockets rather than theirs....

HugoB

Cheers bridiej

Glad to hear you saved some money, .25% would mean at least £600 ish saving for us, which is one airfare for free! Thats the way I look at it. Now I see everything in terms of how it affects our moving to Oz.

what did you say to get it down? Whats your haggling line?

Mr Hugo B

bridiej

Basically I had two other agents in before hand and the one we were originally going to use quoted us 1.25% (as we bought the house from them), so I had the agent we're using round and left it up to him to phone us to ask if we'd discussed it. I said that we were keen to use them but the commission was a problem, he asked what he'd have to do to get the job and I said 1.5% - he agreed.

Probably worth a go yourself!

binbird

We had three agents round and fortunately our preferred one had a special offer on at the time of 1.3% whilst the other two came in at 1.5% so we didn't actually have to do any haggling as we were happy with that after seeing the competition. We weren't tied in to any set period with this either. It took six months to sell the house (and one offer that fell through) but we have exchanged and all being well will complete on 1st August.

Always worth asking what their best price is though - if they want to sell your house they'll play ball! Good luck

Binbird

wengerboy

hello there
we went with an independent agent and got them down to a flat fee of 1250.00 +vat which works out to about 1460.00 in total.
oh and i also only signed up for 8 weeks
my advice play the bastards off each other

Rich and Angie

Our agent has a standard charge of 1.25% which is quite good really compareed to some that I have read about. We have to pay them about £2015 in a couple of weeks..... it breaks my heart. But at least we have sold using their board so can't grumble really they've earned their money.

Good Luck
Ang

Sherie

Hi Ang,
Sorry not been in contact, but great to see your sale is going through!!!
I agree it does seem a lot of money but having sold will make it sooooooo much easier for you to start your new life in Oz.
We've been really busy trying to get our house up for sale. Both of us up till 1.30 am on Monday evening/Tuesday morning just to get the house in order before the estate agent came Tuesday morning!!!
One agent only wanted 1% AND HE REALLY LIKED THE HOUSE, another was really negative and valued it far less, so it is obvious who we will be going with.
Just hoping there is a quick buyer for us as flights booked for 14th September!!!!
Hope to see you before we go.
Sherie

Swerv-o

Hi there,

I had three agents in and just took the cheapest one, which was 1.25%. I did phone around others and I couldn't beat that price so I took it. One agent that I had in got a tad arsey with me when I told him how much the cheapest commision was and asked him if I could beat it he said "These are my prices, I am able to do the job at that price, so stop wasting my time!" Needless to say I showed him the door. It amazes me how many business people are willing to let perfectly good business disappear through inflexibility.

So in the end I went with the cheapest, who has worked damn hard and in my opinion probably deserves her money, if estate agents ever do. I've had constant (daily) updates by text and phone, written confirmation of offers, accompanied viewings, advice on improvements and negotiating offers in a positive direction. I ended up accepting an offer only 3k less than the asking price. Just got to hope that it all holds together for the next 6 weeks!

If you're looking for a cheap solicitor, then try joslinrhodes.co.uk - I've just instructed them and they quoted £377 including vat and no completion - no fee insurance. Not sure if I should be advertising them here but you may find my experiences useful.

S

sid_s

We ended up paying a very high commission. I think it was either 2% or maybe even 2.5%. The property was in London and we initially had it on with an agent who charged 1.5%, however we waited about 4 months with no offer.

Eventually in desperation we tried Foxtons. They charge the most but they are the biggest in London and have a reputation for being very aggressive. They did seem to get us more viewings and after a couple of months an offer so I think it was the right move because we could still be waiting now.

I've seen a few websites around that offer suggestions about how to increase your chances of selling a property (I think the BBC have one). The one I looked at advised against trying to negotiate a lower price with your agent because it might make them less motivated to push your property, particularly if they have other very similar ones on the books. Not sure how valid that is but worth considering.

Amazulu

We managed to get 1% which I think is quite good. Luckily we now have a private buyer so won't have to pay anything.

chatty34

We paid 1.5% for sole agency for 10 weeks, then went multi x 4 for 1.75%, all the agents agreed to 1.75% as basically we said take it or leave it and only one agent left it.
Talking to other people this seems to be the going rate. We only paid 1.0% 3 years ago but it seems that none will go lower than 1.5% sole agent anymore in our area.

Good Luck!
Ours just feel through 3 weeks before completion

charlie63

we are being charged 2% at the end of a very long and stressful journey, we were supposed to be off 3 weeks ago but the buyers mortgage offer never turned up - then today it came through only for us to be told part of it comes under a loan and so is subject to the consumers credit act so they now have a 10 working day cooling off period before we can complete so we can not move on until the end of the month now!!!! anyone noticed how much the flights are rising now.

oh well at least we will exchange tomorrow fingers crossed.

Charlie ( slightly miffed and going grey!)

storerg

I got 1.25% no tie in, but two weeks notice. They told me that they would be able to sell it within two weeks so I told them to 'put there money where there mouth is' and only have two weeks notice of termination. I also managed to agree with them that the house would be in the two local papers every week and the details would be in the shop window every week at eye level and that after two weeks when I went multi agent there rate would stay the same.

Hope this helps.

storerg

ABCDiamond

For future reference the average rate we pay in Australia is about 3% (and often + GST)

I paid a flat £900 when I sold my last UK house. Which at the time worked out at 0.75%. Then within 2 years I sold one here and paid 3.5%. I was not amused !