Estate Agents fees - how much? House marketed as a range not a price.

[perhapsnotmoving]

I'm a regular but using alias for obvious reasons.

Just had an estate agent round to value the house/ put on market. We want £170k. I feel this is more than reasonable as similar properties going for £175k ish.

We were trying to do a part ex on a new build but they wanted us to sell for £155k and we just can't.

This EA use a "price range" so will put it on for £160k - £180k. This seems both daft and dishonest. If I was buying I would pitch my offer at the lower end of this range, and I've told him I'm not accepting £160k end of.

He'd been here 1.5 hours before he mentioned the fees, almost in passing. A flat £4420, plus VAT After some argument he has agreed to knock off the VAT but we are still reeling. Is this normal or are we being well and truly fleeced?

Wow, I haven't sold since four years ago, but I'm pretty sure the fee was about 1.25% of selling price! I know it was about the same as the stamp duty! Scoundrel! Get someone else in for a quote I say! Hopefully a more recent seller will be along soon.

You are being fleeced. That's almost 2.5% if you do achieve 180,000 pounds and obviously a higher percentage if you sell for less. That is VERY high, particularly at the moment when estate agents are struggling for business. If it was me, I would show him the door and use another agent - there must be others? Why did you particularly choose this one? I don't know why houses are sometimes advertised with a price range but if there is a good reason the EA should be able to explain it convincingly to you - or at least explain why someone will not just offer at the bottom of the range and not budge. Charging a fixed fee also means that the EA has no incentive to encourage buyers to raise their offer and you will probably be put under considerable pressure by them to accept a low offer. Are we allowed to know which agent this is?!

Thanks hop and annh. Yes I was expecting about 1.5% but at 170k this is 3%.

We only chose this Estate Agent because it was one of the companies called in by the new build company to do a valuation and the guy that came (not the same one) said to DH that if he wasn't happy with what the builders came up with to call him.

We had asked others before today how much they charge but none will commit before coming round.

Reading the paperwork it says we have a 7 day cooling off period, so all is not lost (and we haven't paid for the HIP yet).

Anyone know what a reasonable price is these days?

I played 2 EAs off against each other and got down from an initial 1.75% to 1.25%.

If you know realistically the house is worht 170k I wouldn't think you'd get 180k anyway because of the stamp duty.
I've never known an EA to use a range of prices, does seem odd.

I'd change agent if I was you.
Can't believe he was there for 1.5hrs either!

Oh and my other tip is don't use the people recommended by the EA for the HIP, go online for a good price.

Earlier this year, we paid our EA 0.9%. His normal fee was 1.25%. The fee you've been quoted sounds a lot. Does it include advertising?

We paid for advertising, HIP etc. on top of the 0.9%.

1.25% sounds more realistic.

We have to pay for the HIP on top. He quoted £400.

Silly question but what is an EA for if not advertising?

we have just gone on the market and all three EAs that I had valuing the property have quoted 1% with no tie in fees.

Give your agent the boot ! and shop around for your HIP - I just paid 215 from Hips4U on advice of someone else on here. EAs were quoting 275-400.

That was the cost of being listed on various websites and in the newspaper. We also paid seperately for the printing of brochures.

IMO the newspaper is a waste of time as it never tells you exactly where the house is and is a good few days behind the websites. I think pretty much every estate agent puts everything on their own website and onto rightmove and that's where most property searching is done.

We paid £215 for the HIP too, EA was also quoting £400. Also if you get it done through an EA sometimes they're only vslid for selling with that agent so if you didn't sell and wanted to change agents you'd have to do it again.

And only sign to an agent for 8 weeks.

I completely agree! We didn't know this at the time. We sold our house through people seeingit on the internet.

We got 1.75% down from 2% (Central London)and the EA take away the cost of the HIP if they manage to sell our property. Your fee seems way too high.

we too had a set price quoted and managed to negotiate down to a lower fixed price which worked out at 1.25%. We also said they could have sole agency for only 8 weeks not the 12/16 they wanted. Ended up selling it at almost asking price within 1 week. 2 buyers both wanted it so went to best and final offers.
We had contacted another set of estate agents to get a better idea of selling costs but plumped for the agent who had the most coverage/knowledge in our area

HIP can be done by your solicitor if you want