Brun

My lass has just put her flat on the market. The estate agent is charging £1400+vat for doing so. Is this the norm?

davegtt

Depends on what the value of the flat is. Think the going rate is about 1.5%

pslewis

If her flat is £1.5 Million, yes ...... if not, negotiate for a flat £1000 fee all inclusive!

stilover

Suppose it all depend on the location and price of the property.

Mother sold her mothers house (due to death) and she negotiated fee's of £795.
Was sold within 2 days, so she phoned them back up and refuse to pay £795 as they hadn't advertised it (they sold it to developer) so they couldn't justify the price. They knocked £200 off.

Haggle. If they won't budge of price, get another agent that will.

Clarebabes

Surprised your mum has time to do all that whilst trying to keep on top of your washing and ironing.

Brun

Dammit - the flat is going up at 77.5k and it's in Newark. I live in Wetherby so she has sorted this herself. I think she has commited to it now. TBH she is just after a really quick sale so wanted it on the market asap. I did think it sounded a touch steep

PaulC72

Some agents use fixed fees for properties of lower value and then a %age for higher value ones as it maintains a certain charge level.

I also take it she is currently exempt from HIPS?

Good luck with the sale

davegtt

£77k for a flat in Newark, is it a new build? That sounds quite cheap for property round here actually although Newark isnt the nicest of places

Brun

....and she lives in the not very nice bit of not nice Newark
It's an ex council flat i believe, probably built in the 60's.
She had to get her house on the market before 14th of December to avoid the HIPS

Luan Pra bang

I think you should never pay more than 1% plus VAT and have never had to.

nooobyscooby

£1400 for a £77K property sounds like a 2% deal and that is a bit high.

There is a lot of hype around HIPS.

Much of the documentation will be provided by your solicitor in the normal course of a sale.

The additional bits are the local authority searches which you can order yourself and take about 10 days to come through. The trouble is that very few buyers' solicitors will use thse - most [and I would anyway] will get their own searches done so the nett effect of HIPS is that councils get two bites of the searches cherry so more money for the taxman yet again!

Then there is the energy survey which, in due course because they are lodged at the Land Registry, will be used to tax homeowners for "inefficient" houses despite the government saying "No, of course we will never use them against you!". Anyway, you can order this yourself by rinigng around. First there were two few inspectors, now there are too many. As all of them have spent silly money on utterly pointless training courses [one of them advised a neighbour to put solar panels on a Grade II listed thatched roof for G8d's sake!] and there is very little work coming in, the prices have crashed and you should be able to get a cert for £117.50 inc the VAT if you haggle hard!

Now some estate agencies will try to panic you into marketing your property before Xmas - NOT a good time to start the sales campaign. They will frighten you with an indicated charge of £500-£750 for these packs when you can see for yourself that a couple of hundred quid is the max.

Other agents tell you that if you give them exclusive agency at 1.5-2.0%, they will do the pack for free, and so they will, but in the small print, if they don't sell in say 8 weeks and you want to change agents, you'll get a bill for the aforemention £500-£750!

So:

1. Don't sell until the Spring
2. Talk to your solicitor and put your own HIP together
3. Squeeze the agents b*ll*cks hard when you negotiate
4. Only sign up to an exclusive agency for a fixed period

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Nice advice there noobyscooby.

How about just advertising the property yourself? With the power of the internet, surely the days of agents being necessary are gone.

Brun

TBH, we have found the house we want so we want to move as fast as possible. We've lived 80 miles apart for 2 years and we just want to live together.

Chrisgr31

Personally I am unsure about the benefits of squeezing the estate agent on fees. Surely if you are paying him more he is going to make a greater effort to sell your house than if you pay him less? The less you pay him the kless marketing he can afford etc.

Having said all that agents are struggling at present and at least a sale would offset some costs!

pslewis

Excellent post noobyscooby.

No need for agents these days IMO ..... if the market collaspes and you HAVE to sell, then they earn their commission.

Abdabz

On cheaper property like that (I have sold a few council tax Band A pads in my time) 1% is the figure to get and is easily got if you play one agent off against another before signing...
2% is taking the michael but many try and get away with it...

fitzscoob

We got the estate agent to 1% when he sold our house.

2% was all good and well when there were loads of properties flooding the market, I think you would be able to get them to 1% quite comfortably, or change agents and tell them before they come around of the fee you are willing to pay.

I dont think it makes any difference to them if they get 1% or 2% obviously they will get more money from the sale, but they will want to get rid of it as fast as possible for you.

If she hasnt signed anything, then she is not tied in. Even if she is, I think the cancellation period was two weeks with my old estate agents.

She might not even need to change agents, if she tells them she wants to change agents and they ask her why, then all she has to do is explain the fee and they might drop there and then rather than lose the property.

I suppose what you have to do is figure out if its worth waiting out the period (if you have to) to save £700 in fees + vat. I would, but the choice is yours.