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I'm watching the Overton window shift while trying to appoint an estate agent to sell my house.

The last time we sold a house was in 2011.

Since then things have changed.

Now, you have to fill out a full, legally binding questionnaire on your house detailing things like boundary responsibilities, historical disputes and structural issues.

Historically, these have all been done at the conveyancing stage of a sale, not the marketing phase and divert the legal liabilities from the solicitor to the vendor.

Also, you are required to pay upfront costs and, if the property fails to sell cover further marketing costs of the agent.

This makes their commission even more galling as it means an estate agent will earn around 5 times the fees of my solicitor and 10 times the fees of my builder who actually builds the houses the estate agent sells.

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Discussion

Zaikaboy 7mo ago

Parasites. Everyone of them

mike 7mo ago

The builder fees is the worse for me.

I have found a guy that describes himself as a "handyman".

He's not a full builder, but he can do any job better than the trained professionals he often sub contracts.

He's done everything from repair the engine on my ride on lawn mower to rebuild my office, making it structurally sound and redecorate it. Redo most of the electrics, fix a broken toilet and remodel the entire outside of the house.

He also rebuilt a dilapidated conservatory making it look new.

For an estate agent to earn in one weeks work what he earned in 10 is extremely galling.

Zaikaboy 7mo ago

There must be a way around that. Have you checked others? What about selling yourself, purple blocks or whatever it's called.

When I rented this flat, I had to jump through hoops to prove I was eligible to rent. Not just financially!!! I did my conkers at them

mike 7mo ago

Purple Bricks would be a great option, but it's failing. It went bankrupt and was bought by Charles Dunstone for £1 a while ago.

Also, it tends to focus on the lower end of the market. But yes, we are thinking of this as an option.

https://propertyindustryeye.com/purplebricks-appoints-interim-ceo/

MBE 7mo ago

Houses sell themselves if they are well presented etc. In these cases the parasites (agents) get paid £1000s for just turning a key in a lock.

I understand there are other diy services available, eg Yopa

mike 7mo ago

Ah yes, I'd heard of them, but not considered them.

Thanks.

David in TN 7mo ago

all told, what percentage of sales price are lost in fees? here in the states, its usually 7-8% of sales price

mike 7mo ago

That's difficult to answer as a total percentage, but an estate agent typically charges around 1 - 1.5%. Solicitors work on a fixed fee, which is around £1,000 - £3,000.

Buying is much more expensive as you have to pay stamp duty (a purchase tax), which go from zero on cheap properties up to 12% on properties above £1.5M

You can see this here:

https://www.gov.uk/stamp-duty-land-tax/residential-property-rates

Zaikaboy 7mo ago

Tax is theft

mike 7mo ago

Recursion outside of computing is a thing 😂

Zaikaboy 7mo ago

Where HMGRC are concerned, definitely

Momo 7mo ago

Man, what kind of a mess the real estate market is!

mike 7mo ago

Estate agents understood what Banks did a long time ago.

1% of $1 is insignificant.

1% of $1M is significant, but not relative to the vendor who receives $990,000