Negotiating estate agents fees

[springaroundthecorner]

Any tips?

I've been told by two separate people locally that the agents will go as low as 1.3% if you negotiate hard. I've tried one and got them down to 1.4%. I would quite like to go with them as I think they are quite good and have sold a house in my road recently.

There must be more to it than just cost surely?

They all go down to 1% where I am (south east).

1% is the norm here in North Yorkshire too.

I've been offered 0.9 % in the last month (SE England).

I would play them off against each other, but also consider what percentage of their sales achieve full asking price, the valuation of your house that they are comfortable with, the average length of time a property is on their books before selling, whether they advertise via the major portals (e.g. rightmove) and if they get you a premium listing, maintain a 'hot buyers' list etc.

HTH.

If was selling a house that I felt was extremely well presented and would move quickly, I'd even suggest going with an agent for a fixed price. After all, if the house sells itself, why should they get 1% of its value?

This area has shown itself again to be crazily expensive then! South central.

Some agents offer a lower percentage if you agree to do all the viewings.

I've had one not want to shift from 1.5 today. I cant believe it! They even sent me a letter saying the same after I had tried to barter them down.

Yes they are negotiable. You could always have them on a sliding scale: if you sell at asking price, you get x%, if you sell for less you get x-1% etc...
I am surprised they refused to budge. You can also play an estate agent against another as well.

Very negotiable. For one house I sold the agent was asking 2%, we agreed a fixed price of x on completion. I prefer fixed price as it stops them living in dreamland with unrealistic asking prices.

The second I sold was via an on-line agent and was fixed fee upfront + fixed fee on completion

I am going to try to get a reduction regarding the viewings and if not they can do them.

I've tried the sliding scale and neither of the two I tried today were interested.
Wondering if they arent that interested because it is a divorce sale?

My husband would get them round to pitch for our business. Let them do their spiel and then when they'd talked about how wonderful they are, what a great area/house we are in, how they have loads of people lined up, chomping at the bit for a property like ours,DH would say, "oh well if you've got that many people on your books ready to go, you won't need to heavily advertise/promote the property, so we can agree [insert figure]% as this won't take much of your time".

Always gets them back pedalling because now they can't say all of that wasn't true. Always achieves a reduction in fees, not always to the amount he specified though, so best to aim low.

the best arrangement i heard of was that a friend agreed 1.5% if the agent got asking price, but 1% for less. she was trying to get a good deal and only realised the massive benefits later!

the agent might get half a % more but they nip any offers of 5 or 10% or more under asking price in the bud. they knock quibbles after surveys on the head. they dont normally bother as it makes little difference to their fee but with an extra 50% fee on offer they work for themselves and you!

sell it as a challenge to their selling skills, then sit back while they look out for their/your interests! genius!