Estate Agent questions

BaZmO*

1. How much do Estate Agents charge to sell your house.

2. If you go with an Estate Agent do you have to sell your house through them? i.e. Are you legally bound to?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

B.

Downtime

Estate Agents usually charge about 1% of the Sale Price, and I believe that if you employ them to sell your house you have to sell it through them, unless you withdraw from the sale.

Edit: Don't forget to add in advertising fees.

Culchie

yeh, had a chap in yesterday from DNG looking at my place.

1% + €275 for advertising and marketing materials/sign/website etc....

BaZmO*

Downtime wrote:

Estate Agents usually charge about 1% of the Sale Price, and I believe that if you employ them to sell your house you have to sell it through them, unless you withdraw from the sale.

But let's just say that you've decided to withdraw from the sale and then got an offer from someone else, privately, where do you stand?

B.

Gerry_J

Firstly, fees are 1% Pluss VAT @ 21% on the sale price pluss €455 for Web marketing.

Secondly, The agent can sue for the fees on two grounds. (a) On grounds of introduction ( b) On the grounds that Sole Selling Rights at the time of selling / marketing the property were with the agent in accordance with the agency agreement in place.

Regards

Gerald D Jacob

BaZmO*

Gerry_J wrote:

Firstly, fees are 1% Pluss VAT @ 21% on the sale price pluss €455 for Web marketing.

Secondly, The agent can sue for the fees on two grounds. (a) On grounds of introduction ( b) On the grounds that Sole Selling Rights at the time of selling / marketing the property were with the agent in accordance with the agency agreement in place.

Regards

Gerald D Jacob

But do they ever? There must be a time scale when the contract is null and void, i.e. you decide you don't want to sell. leave it for a month or 2 then sell to someone that the Estate Agent hasn't introduced?

B.

AndyWarhol

Gerry_J wrote:

Firstly, fees are 1% Pluss VAT @ 21% on the sale price pluss €455 for Web marketing.

Secondly, The agent can sue for the fees on two grounds. (a) On grounds of introduction ( b) On the grounds that Sole Selling Rights at the time of selling / marketing the property were with the agent in accordance with the agency agreement in place.

Regards

Gerald D Jacob

This is typical of the kind of tactics you should expect from estate agents. You don't actually have to sell your property through an estate agent and if you can arrange a sale for yourself, with conveyancing through a low-cost solicitor, you'll save yourself an absolute packet.

This new Tesco property advertising service coming into Ireland should be interesting. It might even ruffle a few feathers and show up the exhorbitant prices that Irish estate agents charge.

BaZmO*

My boss was recently selling his property through an Estate Agent but decided to pull out because his brother ended up buying the house off him. There were no repercussions for not going with the Estate Agent on that occasion, but I suppose there was no introduction in that case.

Tbh, I'm finding it very difficult to see how an Estate Agent earns their money in todays current property market. Like what do they actually do? If you sell your house for €300K they get €3000 plus you have to give them another €455. And you also pay €630 to the Tax man in VAT man.

For your money you get a sign in your garden, which you could do yourself. An add on a couple of websites if you're lucky, (it's normally only on one!) which again you could do yourself. An average of about 2 viewings, because the house is normally sold by then. And obviously they take a few phone calls all of which can be done yourself. Again, I'm really struggling to see how they earn their money and to top it all off, you don't even have to be qualified to be an Estate Agent.

DIY if you ask me!

B.

Gerry_J

Dear B & Andy. That’s correct you can terminate the Agency agreement and sell to another person, that’s the approach from a client that if I come across I don’t deal with them as it’s a 50/50 whether you get paid or not, as being self employed I decide whom I work for.

As if I feel that the person is either a heel kicker or only testing the market I will pass on the property, and concentrate on Vendors whom have the confidence in me to act hole heartedly on their behalf. I take the view that if I am appointed to a property; I work for the Vendor to the best of my abilities, and in doing so actually earn my fees.

Yes it’s possible to sell your self, if you are then you obviously won’t need to engage an agent and there for the agency and introduction issues should never arise. You can of course sell to a person that the agent has not introduced after the Agency period has expired, however if the person was introduced by way of Marketing Direct or Indirect the agent may have a claim to fees, this matter is typically dealt with in the local district court by way of a civil case.

Regards

Gerald D Jacob

TheBigLebowski

It's surprising how many people think you have to go with an agent. I guy I know who lives down the road from me built a house in his garden. He knew there was a waiting list of people to buy houses on the road cos the agencies deliver letters every month saying so. He actually had people knocking into him while the house was being built enquiring about it but still went with an estate agent and the house sold within 2 weeks. It sold for 450k so the agent probably got about 4.5k+ for calling the first name on the list and saying he had a house for them. Crazy. Really agencies do feck all except advertise your house. Expensive advertising...

curious2u2

Just as a follow on to this thread, can one assign multiple
auctioneers to selling the same property?
Do they normally want "Sole" selling rights?

I've a site that could be sold for development and was approached
unsolicited by an auctioneer who says he has a potential buyer. After
a meeting and couple of calls later he mentioned that his fee would be
2%. The price he's mentioning is good and if given the go ahead he'll
present the site to this potential buyer.

Another agent wants to sell it too and reckons an auction might be the
way to go. Haven't brought up fees with that one yet. Could one have
the two of them going at it and then pick the best price offered?

TheBigLebowski

Why not just stick your own sign on the plot and see what response you get. His potentail buyer will probably see it anyway. Save you giving 2% to the agent...

curious2u2

Yeah that is an option. Having looked around a bit more, I might try daft
and see what that brings up.