To balk at £27k estate agency fee and consider the online alternative

[lemsiptime]

We live in silly-house-price land - aka Greater London, and the modest Victorian mid-terrace house we bought 14 years ago, and extended, is now worth an eye-watering £900K.

Our DCs are approaching their teens and shooting up in height so we want to move to something a little bigger, slightly further out. We've had one estate agent round so far, and their fee is 2.5%+VAT which works out around £27.5K . To me that seems completely excessive, and could influence whether we're able to afford the step up to a bigger property.

I've read loads of bad reviews here on Mumsnet and MoneySavingExpert about Purple Bricks, and they don't seem to have many properties around our way (3 in a 2 mile radius) suggesting they're not exactly booming in popularity, but there's a huge difference between their flat fee (£1199) and £27K. I'm aware there are other online agencies too. AIBU to be tempted by that route? If so, please tell me what the more traditional estate agent will do for their money as I need to be convinced.

[allchattedout]

I can't believe that no-one has pointed out to you, @lemsiptime, that 2.5% of £90K is actually only £2,250 - not £27.5K!

Um.... Her house is worth 900k, not 90k.

[BIWI]

I can't believe that no-one has pointed out to you, @lemsiptime, that 2.5% of £90K is actually only £2,250 - not £27.5K!

[foxychox]

We're in a very similar situation - had purplebricks round and it seemed ok, then had a guy from a London-wide agency round who quoted 2.5% plus VAT. Unsurprisingly he did give us a higher valuation, but to our surprise backed it up with quite a few sales in our area in that price bracket to people moving out from the more pricy central areas. The same agency got my BIL around 15% over the asking price for his property. Although the fee will be eye watering we're going with it as we've seen the proof that they can do it plus we have the time to wait for the right buyer to come along...

[PeaFaceMcgee]

I have no clue why yous are paying thousands when we spent under £300 for our online agent

[TheBeastInMsRooneysRoom]

My sister sold the house I was renting from her and used Hatched. I dealt with them on her behalf and they were fantastic. It was so easy. I am a SAHM so was available to do viewings, but it sold on the 3rd one anyway. I think the whole thing cost about £2k because it was very cheap to go on their books and then a flat rate if it sold. But they were very good, did all the photos and admin and no buyers got our phone numbers

[VeryBitchyRestingFace]

We sold our last house via Foxtons and paid 0% commission grin. They'd just opened an office in our area and to get stock on their books were offering 0% commission if you sold within 6 months of them opening

They sold your house for free?

Or did the buyers pay them?

**

[edwinbear]

We sold our last house via Foxtons and paid 0% commission . They'd just opened an office in our area and to get stock on their books were offering 0% commission if you sold within 6 months of them opening. I found them excellent.

[YippieKayakOtherBuckets]

Do keep an eye out for new estate agents opening in your area, too. They will usually have a very low rate for the first few months.

[StiickEmUp]

Oh my word.

We sold a glad outside of Brighton and fees were £2000+ vat the house price didn't matter!

[Musicinthe00ssucks]

Hi OP when we sold our flat in London we paid 1%, although some agents were quoting 1.5%. 2.5% seems extremely high! I would shop around and definitely don't be looking to pay more than 1% - you don't need to.

[thatdoesntsurpriseme]

And I didn't use Foxtons! I used one of the local ones in my area of SE London

[thatdoesntsurpriseme]

I sold mine in London and it was 1% inclusive of VAT (I did have to haggle). your house is worth enough that they will haggle with you on this and if they wont, go to another estate agent who will.

I wouldn't bother with Purple bricks. As a buyer, I have hated viewing properties marketed by them as the owner has to arrange it themselves and its a nightmare and just awkward. As a seller, your property is worth a lot even for London so why would you want timewasters etc who would otherwise be vetted and excluded by a proper estate agent?

[SanityAssassin]

wtf are you selling that would incur that ?

[YippieKayakOtherBuckets]

So we have sort of accidentally used Foxtons twice now, having sworn that we would never touch them.

When we bought our first house, I found the perfect property on right move but was hugely put off when I saw it was marketed by Foxtons. DH rightly told me to get over myself. We viewed, loved, and ultimately bought the house, and I'm confident that we didn't pay over the odds for it. The whole experience was fine as a buyer.

When we were leaving London we got half a dozen agents to value. Most came in £25k either side of £450k. The awful Foxtons one gave me a stupid spiel, valued it at £500k, and then sat back to watch my reaction. Needless to say we didn't use them. We signed with another London agency who were, frankly, poor; it is worth saying that Foxtons do not have the monopoly on being a bit shit.

We couldn't sell the house in time to relocate as we had to be in our new city for jobs within a month or two, so we let out the house with a local, family-run small lettings and management agency. All tickety-boo for a couple of years, but the owners then decided to retire and sold the lettings side of their company to Foxtons. Foxtons honoured the favourable management rate that we had been paying and their admin was all pretty professional from our point of view as landlords. They were keen to value our property and encourage us to consider a rent rise but we refused. We later realised that they do make a lot of money from selling hugely inflated add-on services to landlords - smoke alarm installation, cleaning services, inventories etc - at the start and end of tenancies.

Our tenants then gave notice a few months later and we decided to sell. At this point, we were living two hundred miles away and it wasn’t practical to get back to London to field loads of valuations - so we went with Foxtons. The higher rate was worth it in our particular situation as the lettings and sales teams were pretty good at communicating and they took care of most things under my (admittedly assertive) remote direction. It is worth noting, however, that they were quite pushy with their high valuation of £500k+. We were adamant that we wanted to market at £475k, which turned out to be about right.

So they were fine for our particular situation, but for OP who is presumably selling her own home I would use somebody local. Do get local, personal recommendations if you can, but specifically from people who have used them to sell. Our disastrous agency were recommended by a friend who had bought with them and it was a mistake to assume that this would translate to a good experience as sellers.

[Haleyj580]

We found our house through Gumtree. The previous owner thought she would give it a go before using an estate agent and she sold it to us pretty quickly. Also our neighbours sold theirs by using local Facebook selling pages.

[origamiwarrior]

House Network all the way! We sold with them, can't fault them in any way. Do an advanced search on Mumsnet for them and I doubt you'd fine a negative review.

In my opinion, House Network is a bit more of a solid 'brand' than Purple Bricks (which I perceive, from their TV adverts, to be a bit low-rent and gimmicky). You want buyers to take you seriously if you are selling a house of that value, and I think Purple Bricks would make you look a bit amateur.

[missyB1]

We also used housenetwork to sell our last house, saved ourselves thousands and it sold within two weeks for the asking price. Fairly smooth process we had a dedicated agent who we could phone or email.

[EssentialHummus]

I used to be a divorce lawyer in London. Generally, the courts would not take any Foxtons valuation to be a serious indication of the property value because of their tendency to massively overvalue and the very remote possibility that their price would actually be achieved on sale.

This chimes with my experience of Foxtons. I watch my local market very closely. If three other high street agents price a property at £500k, it'll be £575k with Foxtons. And they are not selling - because we're not in one of those "stick a For Sale sign in a gold-polished turd" periods of the London property market, because buyers are wise enough to look at comparable properties, and because Foxtons has a reputation for wild overpricing.

I'd try one/two other local agents OP, and negotiate down to 1% or thereabouts. There isn't enough on the market (near me, anyway), so they'll want to sign you up at almost any cost.

[alphaechokiwi]

We sold our 2 bed E1 postcode flat with Foxtons last year. 2.5% commission. However, they got us the top of the market price, and sold within a week, before it even went on zoopla or rightmove. An identical flat in our building was on with another agent at the same time and sold for £30k less. I think they were the right agents for the property at the time.
However having now sold, rented and bought property with them, I would avoid dealing with them again. When the time comes to sell our current house (SE London), I will go with a local agent who all charge 1% as standard.

[Happyfamily72]

We used Purplebricks. An estate agent carried out the valuation and got the property sold in 3 weeks, and we saved £14,000 in fees. Don't listen to all the negative comments, they are probably disgruntled high street Estate Agents. If you really are having doubts read the trust pilot reviews, 12,000 people can't be wrong. For goodness sake don't suffer commisery!

[turbohamster]

Experience of what estate agents do differs somewhat from my own
Know the local market inside out
Tried to imply property was new to the market despite the outside photo having a competitors sale board on view / tried to persuade me to view a property where 3rd bedroom was accessed through 2nd and wasn't aware of this until I pointed it out despite being clear on published floorplan
Create good qualty particulars
Generally littered with spelling mistakes and phrases such as 'like a tardice(sic)
Chasing progress up and down the chain
No chain
Vet prospective purchasers for financial viability
Didn't do this

Point of contact for day time viewings
Didn't turn up/ turned up without keys/ made owners do viewings
Key holders on completion day
They handed some keys over - amazing!

[1ris]

I don't know why anyone would use Foxtons (or Fuckerstones) as we call them. They have a dreadful reputation for all sorts of reasons.

I would find it very hard to even view a house they had on for sale as the thought of dealing with the smarmy gits that tend to work there just puts me off.

So many EAs are struggling just now. If I was selling I'd use a local independent one - as long as they can advertise on Rightmove/Zoopla/can't remember the other one.

[BiteyShark]

I was trying to remember who I used for online EA as it was a few years ago and think it was house network. They were very good and I saved thousands in costs.

[9GreenBottles]

I sold my house last year using Visum for around £250 (they charge a set up fee and monthly charges to advertise on Rightmove/Zoopla etc). I did everything myself: wrote advert, took fabulous photos, put up for sale board, did viewings, negotiated, and liaised with my buyers estate agents when my solicitors were being difficult.

In fairness, I knew I had a house which could sell well, had the time to do it myself, and used to be a buyer so dealing with arsey people and asking very potentially rude direct questions is water off a ducks back - although it never really came to that, my buyers were lovely. I sold in a month for 6% more than the estate agents valuation whilst other houses on same side of the street took 4-6months.

I don't know anything about the London property market, but we have been looking for an investment property and the results the estate agents round here send me bear little resemblance to what we asked for so I do all of my own searches on Rightmove (as do most people I know).

Good luck!

[thesunwillout]

Many years ago Foxtons came and put their for sale sign in our garden in the night,when we hadn't even agreed to them being our agent.