Is it worth hiring a buying agent?

[Messymama1]

Our bid on a property has been accepted although we feel we are paying a bit more since it's currently the buyer's market. The initial bank survey quoted the price of the property at amount which the bid was accepted. Wondering if it's worth hiring a buying agent to reduce the price. Let me know your thoughts please!

But they don’t really. You might as well say that the buyer also pays a contribution to the seller’s next house.

The price that the buyer pays is for the house. Yes, the seller will have to pay EA’s fees out of that, but that’s not the same as passing on the costs.

@NewFriendlyLadybird of course it is the same! The seller will obviously recoup his costs by passing them to the buyer. Why is it that you don't understand???

The seller does not recoup costs, you muppet. Recouping means you get costs back that you have paid up front. The seller does not pay the EA in advance. The EA, however does recoup the costs that they have spent on marketing the house when they are paid their commission.

Don't be patronising. I understand what you're saying, I'm just disagreeing with you that anyone sees it that way. They don't.

Fees here are more likely 1% by the way, so maybe that's why we don't see it the same as you, it's not such a big impact.

@NewFriendlyLadybird You muppet? Did you mean to be so rude?

Obviously neither you nor @VanGoghsDog are receptive to understanding a different perspective.

Yes I did. Glad you noticed.

You have been repeatedly rude and patronising to both me and @VanGoghsDog . When I first engaged with you on this subject it was in the spirit of arguing a different perspective. You chose to respond by insulting my intelligence.

To be clear, in England (which is the only country in which I have experience of the housebuying process) the EA does not ‘jack up’ the price of a house to allow for their fees. They do not set the price and they cannot add to it on their own account. The price that is agreed between the buyer and the seller (in a normal market transaction) is simply the ‘value’ of the house to each of them. Both parties have subsequent costs (moving, solicitor’s fees, EA commission) and the seller has usually thought about them before agreeing a final price. But they are not ‘passing on’ those costs to the buyer in the way that, say, a water company might pass on extraordinary spending on repairs by jacking up the price to consumers over and above what they would normally charge for the service.
As I said before, you could argue that the buyer is paying the EA’s fees because normally the seller pays them out of the proceeds of the sale. But then you would also have to argue that the buyer is paying for everything else that the seller chooses to do with the money. And that’s not the case, because the buyer paid for a house, which they’ve got.

We do "understand" it, we're just explaining why it's wrong.

Presumably in the first place you bid what it was worth to you. So why are you trying to reduce it now ?

My guess is that the sellers reaction to attempt to lower will largely depend on the reception they have had so far to the house on the market (has it been on a long time, has it received lots of other offers?)

But to put in a bid, then want to reduce it, then potentially want to reduce it still further because of the survey - I would probably tell you where to go, especially if the house was receiving lots of other interest.

Hello, buying agents absolutely do exist, as you can see from my temporary name… the values of properties we have helped clients buy have ranged from £375,000 to over £5m, so it isn’t exclusively the domain of the rich, famous or international as suggested in an earlier thread. Buying agents are useful for everyone but particularly if you are short of time, want to save yourself stress and want access to off market properties and to get in to see houses before they go on Rightmove etc. In a buyers market (like now) they should save you their fee in the negotiation process, although this can’t be guaranteed obviously if the property is very popular. We charge a fee for the search and acquisition process, so this includes finding the house, doing due diligence on it to check it is all ok, negotiating and then overseeing until exchange, organising surveys, liaising with solicitors etc. I change a smaller fee for just helping with the negotiating process, this is often used by those who have already found a house to buy but have had a difficult time in the past and want someone to help them negotiate and see them through the buying process. Approximately 35-40% of sales fall through these days - this comes down to just 4% when buyers use a buying agent. In the OPs case I am not sure she would find a buying agent willing to help them gazunder - unless a sale has gone on for an extremely long time through no fault of the buyer, or unless the survey has shown up major faults then lowering your offer price is an extremely dodgy moral practice.