Estate Agents and their percentages

[Shaggy]

Hello everybody.

I have been going round the estate agents recently and all have been offering a sole agency contract at 1.5 percent. All but Fuxtons of course. Anyone managed to negotiate any lower?

[Jeremy]

Negotiation is common... if you tell one agent that another has offered you 1.4%, you'll probably be able to get 1.3%.

In the summer, some were offering as low as 1% - 1.2%, but I'm not sure if they'd do a deal like that in the current climate.

[seanmlow]

No they prob won't. My mate got 1% only since he was friends with the agent....

[Helen King Edwards]

Just had Ludlow and Thompson offer me 2%!! It's my first time selling, so wasn't sure what to aim for. What is Foxtons current then? Any tips or advice as to who to go for?

Helen

[macroban]

The first East Dulwich estate agents to break ranks and drop percentage commissions and introduce a flat fee of, say, ?2000 would make a killing.

It could be a Foxtons-killer too.

[jimbo1964]

The last time I sold (last August) we managed to get 1.35% (it's still a hell of a lot of money). There's a lot of competition so worth trying to barter.

[DaveR]

Paid 1.1% last spring, but times are harder now

Think second-hand car buying - "I really want to give you the business but I can't pay that....."

[SteveT]

I have bartered with solicitors and saved myself enough money to have supplied and fitted a hall and stair carpet.

Ask the price to get out of one house into another house, and then try another then another qouoting what the cheapest said instead of paying 750 I was in for 300 it took 4 hours and at that time I didn't clear that amount per hour.

[jimbo1964]

Don't forget you pay VAT on top. It can come as a nasty surprise.

[nutty]

Do you think you achieve as high a price through somewhere like property broker though?

[vivienne]

That says it all really...you want a higher price...go to an estate agent and then call them greedy.

It may sound like a lot of money but there is also a lot of work/man hours that go into selling a property and it is all done on trust that the Owner won't suddenly change their mind, change agent, change the price..not allow viewings, decide not to sell or get the asking price and then take the house off the market. If you are lucky enough to sell your house quite quickly to maybe the first or second viewer, don't forget that the agent has probably matched the potential buyer to your property.

[????]

That matching thing must be really difficult - * buyer enters SE22 estate agent "hello I'm looking for a 3 bedroom house in SE22" Estate Agent "Here's 5 on our books". I think the staff in Sainsbury's shoould start charging you commission for pointing out where the chickpeas are to be honest....

[*Bob*]

Just off downstairs to match myself up with a cup of coffee. Wish me luck.

[????]

I will show you some very desirable milk in a good catchment area for a large sip

[*Bob*]

Bugger! It fell through and I ended-up with tea instead.

Next time I shall go through Foxtons.

[Ted Max]

I went to make a cup of tea but my colleague insisted that I try all the old herbal and other infusions that have been lying around unused for ages, before I got to see any of the good stuff.

I said I wanted milk and two sugars but he suggested I think about only having one sugar for now, and maybe looking at adding another sugar later.

[????]

*chuckles

[SteveT]

Ted Max a brilliant piece of prose:))

[Indiana]

I negotiated to 1.25% with Haart last Summer if that helps.

[Muttley]

The whole basis by which estate agents charge is flawed (see Freakonomics). Estate agents want a quick sale, so it's not in their interest to go for a high price. Knocking the price down by ?10k only costs them ?150, and could save them weeks with the property on their books.

You should attempt to negotiate a sliding scale that rewards your agent for getting a good price. Smaller agents are more likely to accept such an arrangement than an inflexible large agent with big fluorescent offices (say).

For example suppose the agents value your flat at ?250,000. You should offer them a base rate of 1% of the sale price, but 10% of anything they achieve above ?240,000. So if they sell for ?240k they earn ?2.4k, but if they sell for ?260k they earn ?4.6k (close to 2% of the asking price).

We sold my parents' house using an arrangement like this. It works!

[lozzyloz]

When you say it works, did you achieve a vastly higher price than selling in the normal way or that the agents accepted your fee proposal (presumably made after the valuation)? Just curious and no I'm not agentphobic.

[Muttley]

Put it this way, the house achieved about ?15k more than the asking price that the agents originally suggested (and we got their valuation before suggesting the arrangement). However, bear in mind this was in 2006 when things were rather more bullish than they are at the moment.

[Pickle]

Just be wary... if you negotiate a lower than usual commission, check the final statement you receive before you pay it. We negotiated with Haart when we sold our house almost 2 years ago, and then noticed they had charged their standard percentage on the bill. We queried it (with contract it hand) and it was amended... but it made me wonder whether they chance their arm with these things!

[SueJ]

Hi All

My friend is selling her 3 bed house in Nunhead and went to Pickwick Estates, (just by Dulwich library) she cant stop raving on about them and as they are an independant estate agent they were able to offer her a fantastic deal. I wont say how much as you really need to speak to them for yourself all I will say is that they beat the %`s being quoted above and look at each property on its own merits. Also I did go with her to some of the agents and felt they were all the same however just on entering Pickwick the whole approach was different.....

Negotiate thats her secret, if you dont ask you certainly wont get.

[Mark]

so what % did your friend get?