stacey and jordan

Got a few estate agents coming out over the next few weeks. Can anyone give me an idea of what sort of prices they will charge. Is it a set price or a %, and can i haggle?

wargod

Ours originally wanted 1.75% - we said 1.25% and it's yours, they accepted.

Downies

Some of our local agents do for set flat fee (£1k) which includes advertising and solicitors fee.

Deffo negotiate - ring around larger companies and ask outright over the phone what their std fee is and take it from there.

Paula

Hutch

Depends where you live. Round here there's no way they'd do the 'job' for £1000. Ours is 1.5%.

chris and farideh

we haggled and got it down from 2% to 1%, but IMO, they dont work as hard as they do with the if its not on full commission, so when we come back from our reccie end of July, I'm going to offer an extra 1/2% more on top of their usual commision rather than the drop the price of the house if they sell the house for us. this was recommend by our solicitor.

majortom

My EA is charging me 2% of the sale and im tied in for 12 weeks.

I found that after 8 weeks of not selling their asking me to drop my asking price by £2000.

You see it's the biggest company around these neck of the woods and within a radius of about a mile they have 6 houses with the same spec as me ie: 3 bed.

Obviously Im looking at their prices to compare with mine and have been amazed that their prices have been lowered because of pressure from the EA with the old flannel " the market is a bit slow at the moment".

Now with 4 weeks to go before I can kiss goodbye to them their putting the same pressure on me as my house is now in the upper bracket compared to the rest !!!

The best part is that if I do sucumb to their request I lose £2000, while all that's knocked off their profit margin is...............£47.

Who's controling the housing Market ?????......the bloody EA's that's who.

wargod

Totally agree !

kevinbloomfield

They charge 1% round here, also I wouldn't sign up for 8 weeks. Tell them 4 weeks or you'll go somewhere else.

They are all shite (or so it seems), they want to earn £1,000 - £3000 for doing next to nothing. They just sit on their arses handing out the details to anyone that asks and display a photo in the window / local paper. They even want you to do the viewings!!

Bunch of w****** I reckon

ub40fan

We "interviewed" several Estate Agents at the weekend, we discounted two very quickly and the other two were very hard to choose between.

One was discounted because they are a very big chain, tried to get us to use their conveyancing and also tried to sell us a property in Spain! They also had the highest fees!

Second one gave us a valuation VERY different to the other three, but there was something about her that didn't do it for either of us, nothing we could put our fingers on though.

Third one was very good, had excellent brochures of very good quality and a very low fee (.9%) but his coverage was very limited.

Fourth one, who we have signed with, had a fee of 1.75%, he changed his tie in to 6 weeks, we got him to do a floor plan - essential as we have a 3 bed semi with an upstairs only extension of 2 further bedrooms - it is going on Right move tonight, out to interested parties in the post tonight and in the local papers by the weekend!

I think you will know which agent to use, we certainly had a "feeling" about the ones we spoke to. They do earn a lot of money for not doing an awful lot so make sure you get the one you think will do the business for you.

Next thing is to find a solicitor :scared:

Shirley

leigh&ivan

Had to laugh at your 'location' , it's driving me mad trying to keep the house tidy just in case someone comes to view at short notice.

Ours are charging 1%. The other 2 we got valuations from were 1% & 1.5%
The first 2 that came valued our house at a £35,000 difference

Leigh

ub40fan

Not easy keeping it tidy is it? I have 3 kids and every ten mins I am saying to them, is your room tidy? When they come out of the bathroom - did you put the toilet seat down? Is the sink dry? are the towels straight?
Hopefully by the time we sell it will be so ingrained that they will start doing it automatically! No, I don't think so really

My two cats were shipped off to the cattery last Thursday so there is no smell of food or cat litter! My oldest (16) only noticed this morning

Good luck with selling, lets hope it is sooner rather than later, I have shoved all sorts of stuff in boxes and hidden it in the garage out of the way and now I daren't go in there alone :scared:

Shirley

tin

I have serious doubts about that - ours are charging full commission (1.65%) and they are still completely sh*t

Martyn

wargod

Ours did exactly the same - £35000 difference, wouldn't mind so much if it was a major town/city which i lived in however it is relatively small.

Money for old rope - basically if you like the house you'll buy it, personally i wouldnt give a toss what the estate agent said. All they do, as others have said, is be a shop window - a chuffing expensive one at that.

bruce67

You are lucky its so low! When I left South Africa 10 years ago the commission was 6.5%. granted they did more than over here but thats a load of money. You are right some estate agents are rubbish so try and get a recommendation. estate agents are trying to make a living so if you cut the price and time for them to sell you are wasting your time as you are limiting their chance of success. Try cutting what is more important to you, ie if you are in a hurry let them have their 2% but only sign for 4 weeks. If you want all the cash possible and have time cut them to 1% but at least give them the chance of getting the sale say 8 to 12 weeks, no one works for nothing.

As far as value is concerned do your homework as to what other properties have sold for very near to you (eg I know the last two in my row of terraces). Then get a few agencies in to value, take the average value as a ball park figure and then take on the agent you were recommended!

Bruce.

wargod

Anyone know what the agent commission take in Aus is?