Estate agent costs

[StiggyZardust]

I haven't sold a property for many years. I need to sell a retirement flat and had an agent round today to value the property.
Is it usual for the agent to charge a fee for taking photos? I thought this would be included in their percentage fee once the flat is sold. They've offered all kinds of marketing options which all have additional costs.

They vary.
One will bundle everything into the cost of their 'package', others will itemise things.
It is worth getting 4 or more quotes and then comparing costs (as well as comparing what they think it is worth)

Different agents will have different pricing strategies in terms of add ons, fee and minimum contract.

I had 3 round to value mine. One wanted to charge extra for every little thing, including photos. One did all the photos herself, but no extra fee. The one I chose could either choose someone from the office to do them for no fee, or pay extra for a professional photographer.

One I had previously would only charge for photos if didn't sell with them and terminated contract.

So it really varies!

I have sold about 20 properties in my life time (including three in the last year through two different agents). London, outer London, Portsmouth, Isle of Wight and so on, so in many areas. Not one has charged extra for anything. I've paid a commission of 1-1.75%.

We are selling at the moment , we paid £200 for a video tour marketing pack and the rest is a fixed fee of £1,000 on completion

Our fee included everything, even a professional photographer. Highly reputable EA; 0.85% + VAT. However, they did really want our business as we were considering making an expensive onward purchase with them. Another similar EA offered everything for 1% + VAT. I'd definitely shop around. The only thing that was an optional paid extra with both was a virtual tour.

I’ve only ever paid 1% and sometimes less, and that includes everything.

We are paying 1% +vat . They gave the option of them doing photos for free or referring us to another company who did "proper" photos for £75. We decided to pay extra and they did look really good.

The charge is 1.5% plus the cost of the photos/marketing. Time to shop around a bit I think!

I've never understood how they can charge a percentage of the sale price.

They don't do any more for a £2 million house than they do for a £200,000 house.

It should be a flat rate.

It will be a bigger house for starters at 2 million and more outbuildings etc and the buyers will generally be fussier