Estate Agent Commission

[phil210]

Just wondering what is the normal commission charged by estate agents when selling a house around East Dulwich.

Does anyone have any good negotiating tactics for getting them to reduce their fees?

[Mike Dodd]

We have just sold ours got them down to one and a half per cent .But there is a shortage of houses for sale or so they tell me so you might be able to do better good luck

[Jeremy]

1% is acheivable.

[phil210]

Thanks for the responses.

We'll probably be looking at KFH, Haart, Pedder and Winkworth to see who offers the best service and value.

Anyone had any good / bad experiences with these ones?

[keane]

We had a bad experience with winkworth, they played us off against another buyer once our offer had been accepted and we got gazumped for another ?30,000. Obviously the person we were buying from played their part in this but Winkwoth didn't behave well.

[boomerang]

You can also try negotiating a 'fixed' price rather than percentage commission. As long as your fixed price is realistic enough the agency wouldn't turn your offer away. I was able to sell my place for under 1% since I achieved above asking price. Base your fixed price along the 1% margin of the value of your property.

My opinion on which local agent to use would be either Winkworth (I have had dealings with them both buying and selling over the past decade) and find them the most honest along with Roy Brooks for the same reason.

[ClareC]

We used Spencer Kennedy - they were excellent!

Wasn't impressed by KFH - the girl that valued demonstrated she didn't know the area.

[Cedges]

The percentage price will depend on the value of the property. I have just sold nr Queens rd Peckham with a flat marketed at ?170k. I wasn't able to do any better than ?3,500 plus VAT fixed price, even with negotiating and shopping around, that works out at just over 2%, slightly more in reality as I accepted an offer. A dearer property should however be able to attract a better commission rate.

[Dapacouly]

Cedges is right: the higher the price, the higher your leverage to negotiate. For an agent, selling a 150k flat takes the same effort as selling a 2m property / pretty much, so they will be inclined to make an extra effort to retain the sale of the 2m property.

[ratty]

We got 1% so it is achievable.not gonna say who with as the sale is still going through.

[85volga]

I have found Trupennys to be great, professional and easy to deal with just what you want when you are stressed selling a house /flat , really good guys.

I have used Winkworths as a buyer...salespeople great but the back room manager a total nightmare. rude ....don't get me started no people skills whatsoever

KFH don't bother promise you the world then poooof nothing !

Foxtons who knows has anyone actually agreed to 2.5% commission ? perhaps someone who has should post review of the experience .I'm expecting bottles of champs and horse drawn stuff :)

[L16579]

From a buyers perspective, Haart were very slow to sort any issues we had with the vendor. I distinctly remember them asking me for an update on how things were progressing with the vendor.

[asha024]

KFH have a really bad reputation and my personal experiences with them as a buyer were pretty bad. Not turnuing up for vieiwngs, playing people off aganist each other etc. Foxtons over price properties greatly.

[KingsburyED]

Just sold with KFH who were great. Had an offer on our house for the asking price in 2 days after bein on the market for 4 months with Acorn during which 2 sales at that price fell through. 1% plus VAT. Alastair and Dominic have been great.

[indiej25]

Another recommendation for KFH, really good at keeping in touch and both times we put the flat on the market it was under offer within 24 hours.

[fullofbeanz]

Any one with good or bad experience with Spencer Kennedy? Have you sold with hem before and did they archive York expectation?

Am selling and thorn between which agent to use in East Dulwich. Any feedback on Spencer Kennedy, Harvey Wheeler and Pedder would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

James.

[No-flies]

Dear fullofbeanz

We are a new online agent in the area and we are offering zero percent fee on our first 5 sole agency instructions as an introductory offer. If this sounds of interest to you please look at our website www.no-flies.co.uk which has our contact details.

The following link is for a recent testimonial from one of our clients:

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?30,1107998

Thanks

Brendan

[MissusF]

We sold through Winkworths and they did a really good job - sold the flat BEFORE it was even on the market, for asking price. (They had a stock of buyers who they knew would be keen.) And were generally efficient to deal with too.

I'd agree with others about avoiding KFH though. We bought our new place through them and had a terrible experience - seemed to be a total lack of organisation (ignoring calls/emails and forgetting appointments), and we found them generally really unpleasant to deal with - KFH's approach in our case was probably best summed up as 'ignorant harassment' (ie, 'i'll ignore all your messages about important issues that need progressing, but harass you generally anyway'). I'm pretty sure the people selling the property we were buying found them pretty frustrating too.