How much do estate agents cost?

[venividivicky]

I haven't needed to instruct one for many years,so am a bit out of touch with costs. We recently had a valuation/fee quote for a house in the Home Counties by a well known agent with the initials S & P.

They valued the property at substantially less than an agent who gave us an informal valuation a year ago, produced two 'comparables' from wholly different areas, and subsequently sent a letter saying that they wanted one and a half per cent for sole agency. In addition, we would have to pay £550 up front for the cost of the marketing brochure. Surely the marketing costs should be included in the percentage shouldn't they?

Also, despite one of their agents telling a national newspaper that they had a queue of people wanting to buy properties like this in our specific area, they didn't seem to have any. They just wanted to stick it on the internet immediately whereas we were hoping to try initially for a discreet sale.

I probably will go with an agent, but my initial thought was that if I have to pay for the marketing brochure and they are just going to stick it on the internet to sell it, I might as well do it myself and save a lot of money.

Does anyone else have any recent experience of agents and how much they charge?

[boys3]

Sold in the summer, not in Herts mind - fairly rural area not in the south. We proposed a tiered fee structure to the agent, the better the final price the better their fee. It got them very focused, achieved our top end of selling price expectation, and had sale agreed within a week of going on the market