Estate Agent Fees

[Fr0thandBubble]

We are about to put our London house on the market and have been told we should price it at around £1.6M. Can anyone let me know what they think would be reasonable for an estate agent's fee?

One agent has offered to come down from 1.5% to 1%, but that would still mean that they get £16K, which seems a lot to me.

Anyone got anything better? Or negotiated a staggered fee arrangement (e.g., 1.25% if you achieve top price, 1% if you get within £50K of the asking price, 0.9% for anything lower)?

I think 1% is about as low as you would get - yes - £16k a lot but out of the £1.6m ? Have not heard of lower than 1% from a reasonable EA in London ( I exclude the purple bricks - self agency type things )

It's 1% in most places for sole agency, which is pretty standard, then 1.5% if multiple agency.

16k does not sound a lot to me - we’re paying about 30k on a significantly cheaper property but that’s because we’re selling in central London where all the agents seem to charge more. 1% is very reasonable for the work they will do for you. It’s not just selling the property it’s all the work in keeping the sale on track because a good agent is great for communicating with everyone involved in the sale. Ours has been brilliant so I don’t actually begrudge them the 2% we have to pay them.

You can normally negotiate a fee of 1% for sole agency with an estate agent in London for a house which is quite straightforward and not quirky. The smarter agents may insist on 1.5%.
They all list on the big portals such as Rightmove after they have exhausted their databases.
Alternatively, if you are prepared to put up with all the hassle you can try purple bricks who are much cheaper. If you are willing to put the house on at a competitive price this can work.

Don't forget to check whether the VAT is included in that or in addition!

We were selling just outside London boundary. We had 3 valuations - 2 offered us 1%, with a new one to the area offering a promotion of .85%. All of those were with VAT in addition. As we had to move out and go into rental before we sold (relocation for work) we ended up with 1.2% but that included management service - regular visits to check house was ok, meter readings, sorting out post missed by the redirection etc.

1% sounds reasonable. I'd expect to get near or your price for that fee.
You can't think 'oh that works out at X'. They could sell it to the first viewer or the 30th - you don't ask for a reduction in the first instance or pay more in the second.