Estate Agent's commission - how much did you pay?

[000Laura000]

If you've recently sold a house/flat, please could you tell me how much commission you paid your estate agents?

I've been quoted 1.25% and 1.5% but my friend told me you shouldn't pay a penny over 0.7% and you must negotiate them down to get this amount.

Has anyone recently got a really good deal???

thanks, Laura

I paid 1% in march HTH

I've just been quoted 1.25% by two local agents. There are quite a few properties coming onto the market post-HIP apparently, but 0.7% sounds a bit ambitious to me - did your friend get her Ea down to this (and how!)?

Just paid 1% and had to negotiate for that, we were very pleased with that as we had quotes up to 1.75%. Some EAs will agree a veriable rate where you pay more of a percentage if they get the asking price and less if they don't.

vAriable

I'll aim for 1% then. I thought 0.7% sounded ambitious.

We negotiated our agent down to 1%. They were fighting for our business against an other agent so I was surprised how easy it was to get a reduction (I'm not normally one for haggling!).

When we had our house valued by five different EAs the other week, we got quoted between 1% (a 'special deal' because we are interested in buying a house they hold) and 1.7% (at the amount we hope to sell for, that was a massive difference in terms of £).

One of the EAs, hearing we're going with someone else (who offered us 1.4% but had other reasons we chose them) has just offered us 1.2%. Hmmmm. I think we should be a bit more aggressive and see if we can get a better deal, tbh. Useful thread!

I think they're all a bit desperado for business at the moment. However, "smooth" they might appear.

Just had a revised offer from one EA of sole selling rights for 1% +VAT for eight weeks.

Have gone back to the other offering 1.25% at 12 weeks to see if they can match it. Will keep you posted.

We recently paid 1.25% - we could have got 1% but I think in the scheme of things, we preferred to be with the right agent rather than the cheapest agent iyswim.

0.7 is very VERY cheap. No agent round our way would quote that except for startups desperate for property, who will occasionally quote 0.5% to fill up their books.

However in general 1% is the rock bottom for this area - but what they will sometimes do is quote a flat fee rather than a % which can reduce the fee below 1% (depending on your property). Except of course it removes any incentive for them to get the best price.

Agree with the last poster. We've just sold our house and are paying 1.25 % However, they booked 12 viewings in the first three days and we accepted a good offer within 48 hours.

Definately go with the right people rather than the cheapest.

Am back, also agree with last two posters. Still think it's worth trying to get the price down though - they can only say no after all.

We've had a revised offer from the second EA of 1.1% and eight weeks sole agency. Am more tempted to go with them than the 1%ers as I think they will get more people through the door based on friends' experiences. Good luck choosing OP

We are paying 1% and no VAT.

Latest - actually meant to say in last post that more tempted to go with the 1.1%ers.

Now had an offer of 0.75% from other agent. Would never have expected to have that on the table. We're not selling an especially expensive house.

Am waiting for best and final offer from 1.1%. Just shows that there is wriggle room in some cases!

But cakey what have they valued at, and what will they actually get for your house?

If you're haggling over 0.25% then that's going to be, what, a grand at most?

There's no point in saving 1k on the agent's commission but losing 10k on the sale because they aren't the right agents for the house.

As I say - we chose to go with the more expensive agent but they valued the house a massive 15% higher than the cheapest competitor AND got a buyer at that price within 2 days. So IMO the higher fee was a worthwhile investment!

Have finally chosen! We did go with the higher priced EA, and they stayed at 1.1%.

Like I said earlier, I totally agree with you theyoungvisiter that it's worth going with the right agent, which I think we have now done.

All three agents we had to value the house came in at exactly the same amount to market it for, so this was the only real differential between them.

Just wanted to share that there is wriggle room in some cases, would never have expected to be offered under 1% - as I said in my first post, it seemed very ambitious. Still always worth trying to get the best deal you can, but the price isn't the be all and end all I agree.

whereabouts are you all living, we have house on the market and have been told we have to pay 2%, even after we have tried haggling.

we are in northants.

you have all got much better rates than us

I'm London.

I think it depends on various things, but the most important are:

competition among estate agents (lots of new comers will drive prices down)

price of your house (obvious 1% of a £million house is worth more than 1.5% of a small flat, and yet there are similar costs attached to selling both)

state of the market (if things are flying off the shelves they have plenty of properties to cover their overheads and can spread the costs)

Round our way, properties are expensive and there is huge competition among agents so yes, % prices are good value.

I'm in Beds/Herts borders. Lots of estate agents here so lots of competition between them.

Also have people looking for an affordable move out of London within commutable distance, so market tends to be pretty steady.

Deaglan you seem to be trawling through a lot of old threads...

I paid £300 to a new on-line agent. Big mistake. They were rooky fools who made loads of mistakes (had to have them pointed out rather bluntly). Sent unsuitable people around (a family of four to my poky new-build 2 bed. They also accepted viewings from people who had let me down twice before. They accepted an offer from a couple but didn't ask for proof of finance or whether they had a solicitor in place.