lozgti

As one of these fools I have to stick up for lawyers

Just wonder who people don't like the most.Going through the process of selling /buying house at the moment(I am not a conveyancer) and was thinking.At the end of it we will give the government £2000 stamp duty,the removal men about £1000 and the estate agent about £2000 for putting a board up and taking a photo sols costs would be about £400 for each(free for me except dibs) and they are the ones doing the actual buying/selling.

Have lots of agent friends but I think they get a cracking deal out of this stuff for not much input(except chasing up exchange so they can put the bill in).

fast bloke

solicitors are generally OK, but if you get a bad one it is much more difficult to control the situation than with a bad estate agent. As a broker, I would have to say that solicitors cause more delays, but that is a biased view as most people have already done the estate agent bit before they come to me

OllyK

My case:

Agent - ~£2000
Removal - ~£500
Solicitor - ~£300 sale all done and dusted in 14 days from recieving instruction

Apparition

So it's the money angle you are talking about Olly ? Not the way they do their job ?
For me , in my experience. Except for one solicitor who has now retired, I'd say they don't have an awful lot of respect for their clients. Whereas, again from experience. I had the most conscientious estate agent who kept me abreast of every swerve and turn of my house sale.
Then again. Every one will have differing experiences.
Yve

Tiggs

The agents get the money because they take the risk. Go and find a solicitor who will do all the work but if you change your mind he wont charge!

Agents will not make money from every sale so they are paying for the people they work for and get nothing by charging X to those that go all the way.

This is the same debate as with financial advice.......people dont like the commision but wont pay a fee - imagine an agent saying his rate was cheaper than everyone else but you had to pay whether you complete or not...like that idea?

Account deleted by request

Before you complain about the price of estate agents fee's, similar to Tiggs comment:

1. Estate Agents only sell 50% of houses they put on the market
2. Of all sales agreed 20/30% minimum will not reach completion

So they aint making 2k plus per house put on the market.

Allpeople want a 'no sale no fee package'. So agents lose a lot of money in advertising and servicing of properties where they make no commision at all. If everyone paid for there details and advertising to guarentee sgents some income then fees would be a lot less.

The hidden cost as in any business is very high. I find it amazing that people always say, "they took photo, sold in a week, what a rip off"

Would you rather it took 6 months & 50 viewings in your home? I think not.

A massive proportion of the fee you pay to an estate agent is their ability to introduce a buyer who will pay a top price, if you could find that person you would do it yourself and save the money. same as paying a plumber to fit a boiler, you pay him because you can't do it yourself.

I use a great estate agent to sell my properties and they always keep me informed, get good prices and provide excellent marketing.

Remember you get what you pay for, people who choose an bad agent to save £500 commision often lose thousands of pounds off asking price because they don't get a proper service. Then you come on forums and moan Its you own faults.

chopper

Drunken Bungle Whore

I've had some very baaad experiences with estate agents in the past - but am currently going through a sale and a purchase and have to say both estate agents have been excellent - especially the one for our purchase.

I used to have a much lower opinion of solicitors - but now I work for a large firm and I have to say I'm warming to them! They're handling our conveyancing through a separate division and I have to say I'm jolly impressed - no sale no fee (except dibs) and you can track it all online. Costing us about £1000 in totoal for both aspects (a bit more pricey as one of the properties is leasehold)

We're hoping to exchange in a couple of weeks so fingers crossed.....

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

Same with Solicitors mate, I think you will find the majority don't charge for abortive work. Just think of the risk from your angle....... who would YOU prefer to **** up? the agent or the Solicitor?

brybusa

Estate agents, just lost my flat today....they advertised a property with a garage...and it turns out it hasnt ...after a period of waiting for various forms and the "offer" to go 50/50 on an indemnity policy I pulled out...

Still, on the plus side im going to treat myself to a new bike and spend the money wisely on wine,women, song and super unleaded

OllyK

Estate agent was a complete waste of space, I had to chase them constantly, they often "forgot" to put the house in the paper etc etc.

Solicitor - as I said, all done in a 14 days couldn't have asked for a better service, and cheap to boot.

Tiggs

i think you'll find plenty will charge for what they have done if the sale falls through (as they should if you are working on a fee basis)

mattstant

having sold and/or at the very least been involved in the selling of some 250+ new properties and dozens of commercial and industrial transactions i can confirm that Solicitors can find new and ever more inventive ways to **** up property transactions

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

Oh yeah because that gives us soooo much pleasure, no cash flow, high stress and whinging clients are my raison d'etre

scoob_babe

For us, it was definitely the case of the conveyance that couldn't give a monkey's. I had to do all the chasing up of the additional searches as they could not be bothered and his actual reply to me saying that our buyers said they would pull out if we didn't exchange was 'that's the way things go!!!!

Both sets of estate agents were fantastic (considering we weren't even paying the vendors' agents!!) in helping me get it sorted out!

Definitely to them and to the solicitor from here!

Jonathan Davies

If you use a licenced conveyancer to sell your house, or a cut-price conveyancing factory, you'll get a poor service. The fixed fee only makes money on simple jobs, so they're not interested in doing it right, just getting it done. Monkeys.

An agent who won't get paid if there's no sale is likely to be a bit more keen.