# Estate Agent Fees



## SKY (Sep 25, 2011)

Looking at selling our current house to go for another in a local but different area.
My current house value is approx £190k, I have estate agents over tomorrow to take a look and value with a view or marketing the house.

I understand all agents will be different but what is a normal rate to pay? of course I will barter with them but need a guide.

Thanks All


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## davies20 (Feb 22, 2009)

1-2% of selling price normally i thought?


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## SystemClenz (Oct 31, 2008)

I've just agreed 1% commission on our house :thumb:


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## Philb1965 (Jun 29, 2010)

We are paying 1.25%. Wish I'd haggled a bit harder to 1%, there are plenty of estate agents out there.


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## SystemClenz (Oct 31, 2008)

I was very firm, they started at 1.5 but soon came down


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## Rayner (Aug 16, 2012)

We're doing 1.75% which I know is more than some others but... its been on the market for 3 weeks tomorrow and had 4 viewings and 1 offer (crap offer but still lol)

Edit: just confirmed another viewing this Saturday :thumb:


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## S63 (Jan 5, 2007)

Haggling is the name of the game, however it is also very important to know exactly what the agent will offer you for the agreed commission. Mine threw in the EPC for example and didn't insist on a contract. Getting a low commission rate is beneficial but not the only criteria.


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

If you want to save some serious cash look at an online estate agent. Generally pay £300-500 upfront and that is it. No commission.

The only difference is you will need to do the viewings yourself but they will still organise everything for you and sort out offers etc.

http://www.ownmove.com/ & http://www.housenetwork.co.uk/ are two that I know of. Both have free online valuation tools which will give you a pretty good figure of what the going rate is for a house similar to yours (just need to remember your house is worth as much as someone is willing to pay for).


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## mrbloke (Oct 13, 2010)

emoov are also popping up on rightmove. I am thinking of using them soon and saving ~£3.5k


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## Joe the Plumber (Sep 4, 2012)

I've sold several houses over the years with no agents at all. Make yourself a board, stick it up outside, put a few ads in the local papers, shops and Post Offices and away you go.

It's a good idea to have a solicitor lined up ready to handle those aspects so that a prospective buyer's solicitor can deal with them straight away once you've agreed a price.

It helps if there are other houses in your street for sale with agents as people coming to look at them will then see your board too, but it's certainly worked for me.

I hope this is of interest. Good luck.


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## S63 (Jan 5, 2007)

It's worth pointing out to those not familiar with either buying or selling a home that the duty of the estate agent doesn't end at finding a buyer and accepting an offer, infact that is only the start of what can be a long and painful process especially when the dreaded chain is involved. A good agent should be constantly on the case monitoring and liaising with all parties within the chain and reporting back to the vendor and vendors solicitor. In my many experiences good estate agents are increasingly hard to come by and when choosing one to act on my behalf, the quality of service is more important to me than whether they are a point or two cheaper than their rivals. Invariably I opt for an independent as opposed to a multi national.


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## SystemClenz (Oct 31, 2008)

rayner said:


> We're doing 1.75% which I know is more than some others but... its been on the market for 3 weeks tomorrow and had 4 viewings and 1 offer (crap offer but still lol)
> 
> Edit: just confirmed another viewing this Saturday :thumb:


1.75% wowzers, who's that with?


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## Rayner (Aug 16, 2012)

SystemClenz said:


> 1.75% wowzers, who's that with?


Express estate agency

We wanna get gone lol

Their average selling time is 4-6 weeks and they wont let anyone view the house unless they're in a position to move (sold their house or are cash buyers) so to us it was worth the extra not to have to rush home and tidy up for someone who's house might not even be on the market yet.


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## SystemClenz (Oct 31, 2008)

Yeah ok, does sound good if they sell it within that time frame, I'm on my 4th agent in 20 months! All agents claim to be the best, but when things slow down they just want to drop the price of the house! 

Good luck with it and I'd be interested to know how it goes 

I gave the current agent their 2 weeks notice on monday after not hearing a thing for 3 weeks, and then yesterday they called to say they've got a viewing for us! A kick up the bum is needed IMO.


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## Rayner (Aug 16, 2012)

Wow 20 months would do my head in. Tbh express don't do a massive amount for their money - unaccompanied viewings. All they really do is a shed load of advertising and get people through the door.

Yeah I'll let you know mate :thumb:


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## SystemClenz (Oct 31, 2008)

It's a buyers market, and a tough one at that.

If your happy doing your own viewings you could market your house yourself, the fee their charging will give you a huge budget for that, just an idea.

Yeah 20 months have been tough, but It will sell, just got to wait for the right person!


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## Rayner (Aug 16, 2012)

We thought about doing it ourselves but tbh with the time we'd have to spend doing it we we're better off going to work and earning that money back plus as S63 said its not just this bit its the after bit too I suppose.

The way I see it is if we've got a buyer within 2 months then that's more than worth the extra .75% and have to hang around for a year or 2.

Is 1.75 % of say £200,000 about £3500 and 1% £2000 
Or have I got that completely wrong?


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## SystemClenz (Oct 31, 2008)

Yeah, true.

And yeah, £1500 difference :/


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## Rayner (Aug 16, 2012)

Yeah £1500's a lot, but I remember my dad telling me when they lived in Worle they tried to sell, nothing over the summer and only a couple of viewings, took it off over winter, changed agents and sold within 3 weeks (I presume the woman showing them round was hot!) The second agents we're double the percentage but got the job done.

I'd rather pay a bit more IF their estimations are anywhere near true, we've only got them for 3 or 4 more weeks and they do seem to be getting people through the door so we'll see if they can get it sold.


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

But when did your dad sell? Market has changed dramatically with Rightmove being the main go-to for buyers with Zoopla a fair chunk behind (although Zoopla are offering white-label apps to banks to use).

If you haven't sold in a long time you are asking more than people are willing to pay. It is quite simple. An estate agent can come to you can say that your house is worth slightly more than you thought which at first will make you happy and want to go with them but 4 months down the line when they are telling you to drop the price to get a sale you know you've made a mistake.

Down my road (and roads off it) so far this year there have been 10 properties go up for sale. 8 have gone within 2 weeks of being up for sale. 4 of them were sold in less than a week. It isn't a desirable area too.

Be realistic with your valuation. Estate agents will increase it if they think it is what will make you sign on their contract.


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## Freddie (Mar 17, 2013)

Ask your estate agent to get feedback.from people viewing. They may pick up on faults you've missed. 
When my mum moved we have a few people put off by an extension at the rear needing repainting (we didn't do it to tart with as we thought the new owners were likely to rebuild the extension as it needed it) i ended up giving it a quick paint, and we then started getting compliments about it! (new owners knocked it down within a month anyway) 

We also found our estate agent wasn't doing a walk round with viewers so they were not selling the good points. We changed to one with a higher fee but better record and they actually put the effort in to sell the house. Doing proper viewing etc


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

All estate agents should be gathering feedback from viewers and passing it back to the seller. If they aren't they should be cut off.


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## Rayner (Aug 16, 2012)

Yeah it was ages ago my dad last sold 10-12 years I think but my point is that the cheapest people aren't going to be making as much as the more expensive people which hopefully will make the more expensive agents want it more. 

The reasons we went with who we did were-

Valued around what we want for it.

They don't let people view the house unless they're in a position to move which cuts out the people that nose at houses as a hobby.

They don't insist on a sign out the front which to me is more of an advert for the estate agents than the house plus we live in a little Hamlet which gets next to no traffic.

Their offices are open 24hrs a day

All their 'negotiators' as they call them are self employed ie. If they don't sell the house they don't earn any money.

Also there was no salesman talk from the chap that came down to value it.

The house is advertised on all the major house sites - rightmove, Zoopla etc 

They also phone the viewers a day late to ask their thoughts etc 


I can't actually say whether they are any good or not obviously yet but impressions so far are good.

I've never been one who trusts cheap stuff.


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## S63 (Jan 5, 2007)

There is no one best way but I've been advised to let the agent do the guided tour of the property with the owner absent, gives the client a more relaxed feeling and can be more free with any negative feedback.

Worked well for me, although I was a bit sneaky and left Iphones and IPads discreetly positioned set to record, revealed all conversations between client and agent which came in very handy.


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## Rayner (Aug 16, 2012)

S63 said:


> There is no one best way but I've been advised to let the agent do the guided tour of the property with the owner absent, gives the client a more relaxed feeling and can be more free with any negative feedback.
> 
> Worked well for me, although I was a bit sneaky and left Iphones and IPads discreetly positioned set to record, revealed all conversations between client and agent which came in very handy.


:lol: :lol: :lol: is that actually legal?


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## Rob_Quads (Jul 17, 2006)

If its private property I don't see why not? You can run a CCTV in a house without having to have signs up everywhere so I don't see why this is any different.


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## Beancounter (Aug 31, 2006)

S63 said:


> There is no one best way but I've been advised to let the agent do the guided tour of the property with the owner absent, gives the client a more relaxed feeling and can be more free with any negative feedback.
> 
> Worked well for me, although I was a bit sneaky and left Iphones and IPads discreetly positioned set to record, revealed all conversations between client and agent which came in very handy.


Like it  very sneaky :lol: :thumb:

To the OP, having bought/sold a few houses, don't get hung up on the commission/fee. The best agent is the one that sells your house for the amount your are happy with and followis the transaction through to exchange/completion.

We moved last year and I ended up actually going with the agent that was the most expensive, BUT....they sold the house for £2,000, yes, just £2,000 under the asking which equated to less than 0.3% reduction :doublesho

Some of the cheaper agents had already told me I was over pricing the house , purely because they didn't want to have to 'work' too hard for the sale. 

Look on Rightmove who is getting the sales and also don't be afraid to ask direct questions about how they will handle the process and how many people they have on the books etc. 

Good luck


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## Rayner (Aug 16, 2012)

Rob_Quads said:


> If its private property I don't see why not? You can run a CCTV in a house without having to have signs up everywhere so I don't see why this is any different.


Yeah, it wasn't really a serious question


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## SKY (Sep 25, 2011)

Thanks all chaps for your input. done a deal with a trusted local agent (been in the village for 60 yrs) got them to 1% house valued at £189,995 - with a sale price of £185,995.


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## GJM (Jul 19, 2009)

Might depend on location but I was often quoted 1% but some came in just under, however think some others fees differed to make them both pretty much on par


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## S63 (Jan 5, 2007)

Using an independent I was able to negotiate more strongly than I would have done with a multi national. We agreed a sliding scale which if memory serves me correct was 1.5% if full asking price was got and 1.25% for anything south of asking.


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## -Simon- (Oct 29, 2010)

Offer 1% plenty of agents around....but don't forget the VAT!


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## Edward (May 17, 2013)

I think now the solicitor and real estate agents are not charging more money and some of them are offering their services at no win no fee so now its easy to use their services and they also providing many other facilities at low rates.


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