to be tired of CF vendors

[AnnoyedEstateAgent]

I’m an estate agent, I am responsible in my branch for valuing properties and bringing them to the market.

Our selling fee is 1% which is mostly standard for high street agents in our area, with the exception of a couple of cheapy agents and Purple Bricks etc.

Yesterday I went to value a property and the vendor was the biggest CF I’ve ever met. I went through everything with him, he said he was impressed and liked the way we worked. He then asked fees, I told him it was 1% with no hidden extras and he started ranting about how expensive it was and could I do him a better deal blah blah. I was happy to negotiate and I’m used to customers trying their luck but this guy wanted me to do a fixed fee that would have equalled 0.35% when I said no he told me to “run along and speak to my manager to get it authorised” in the most patronising tone ever!

What I don’t understand about vendors like him is they say they like the way we work, they’re impressed with our knowledge and expertise and they trust us to sell their home - but they don’t want to pay for it it’s like going in a shop and trying to haggle down the price of a tv, it wouldn’t happen.

I understand people want to save money but I think some don’t understand that actually we are a business and we aren’t selling your home out of the goodness of our hearts, we are there to make money!

Grrr.

OP wow only 1% commission, in my area of the UK it's usually 1.5%-1.75% sole agent and goes up to 2% joint. I did get a 1% deal when I sold my property and that was because I used to work for the estate agent!

why you believe you deserve to earn a fixed percentage of the sale price when the work involved in selling a £100k isn’t 10 times less than selling a £1m house?

to be fair, if EA want to charge 25%, they can go for it. It's a free market, it's not about what they "deserve".
Clients are free to vote with their feet. I don't use anything else than an EA because I only need rightmove and zoopla.

it's a free market, it's not about what they "deserve".

Well it is really because whatever you want to charge you have to prove you’re worth it.

And IME EA’s are not worth 1% of a £100k plus house

Well it is really because whatever you want to charge you have to prove you’re worth it.

Not really. You just have to be in line with market norms.

1% seems OK to me.
We sold our last house (in the US) and the fee was 5%. That was mates rates and normally it was 6%. They do all the viewings all the leg work, advertizing, you name it.

It's a very competitive market with disruptors like Purple Bricks pushing down probably prices. That's capitalism I'm afraid.

I work in conveyancing. It pains me to send 5× plus our fee to estate agents. It's the solicitor who takes all the risk on our insurance and carries out the bulk of the work. However, I do appreciate the decent local estate agents now we the new colourful online agent on the scene. Chains with them in fall apart more often and are usually much more stressful than others. Top tip for anyone moving. Use a local independent agent and a local solicitor. Almost any local solicitor is better than the estate agent recommended one. Also, when you take into consideration the extras the online solicitors, add on, local is usually cheaper

EA are only useful if you are too busy to deal with your own viewings, otherwise sorry but they are a waste of money

Theres more that just viewings they also should be able to see if the purchaser is good for the money, seen that happen a few times.

Buyer says yes yes!! lets just go for it they hadnt even asked a mortage lender for the funds at all. They hadn't even stated to market their own bloody property!, that the sort of issue a good agent should be able to weed out!..

true, but online agents do that just as well for a fraction of the price, and frankly you could do it yourself too.
EA do not have access to some secret register unavailable to the general public.

Now, some people wouldn't have a clue how to negotiate, some need help, but many of us don't.

Actually local agents often do have a list of local investors who favour certain properties.

The negotiations are the easy bit. Its the chain checking, sales progression, managing client expectations and general agony aunt duties that are valuable with a local agent. It means the difference between an exchange or a fall through. They also recommend some really crappy conveyancing firms, even insisting you use them if you choose to defer payment of their fees until completion.

12 years in the business and this is bothering you? I'm in London and I've had a discount on the standard fee everytime I've sold and never paid more than 0.75, twice sold at 0.5. I'm confused as to why this was a surprise to you as it's standard to question the % fee.

I% is quite reasonable for some areas, but it's sneaky that this is always exclusive of VAT, when most goods and services automatically include it.

I'm a cash buyer and staggered at how lazy EA are outside of London. Despite registering with a few, they can't even be bothered to contact me if they take on a suitable property. They are entirely reactive, not proactive, relying mainly on property portals to bring in business.

Sometimes they don't even respond to direct enquiries via rightmove.

I wouldn't begrudge 1% for a good agent though; you only realise how good they are when you have the misfortune to use Purple Bricks or another hopeless online agent.

I buy and sell regularly and I am more happy to sell at a % of final selling price using a good agent that I have built a good working relationship up with than a fixed fee, from experience a good agent is essential to a smooth sale as is a good conveyancer.
As a vendor I really appreciate both.