Estate agent fees in North County Dublin

I'm not an estate agent but isn't it worth paying the little bit extra (comparatively) if you get a few thousand extra from a good agent.

Let's say e350,000 at 0.5 per cent is e1,750
e360,000 at 0.85 per cent is 3,060 meaning you pocket an extra e7,000 nearly (before Vat, which is obviously higher in the second case).

I don't know who the best agent is in north Dublin though.

Beta Bill wrote:

Where were you when Eddie Hobbs was presenting rip off republic! I wouldnt knock a cheaper fee. 'Brand Name' agents dont necessarily mean a better sale price - read other postings on other boards about those 'agents' and see for yourself......

If you read my post I didn't say he should use a brand name agent, just that he should not choose based solely on lowest fee. I explicitly said I didn't know who the best agent is - that's something the OP will have to ask around about. However, my point remains valid: Paying a bit more to secure an agent who's good could well be worth the extra money. With a good agent he may pay e2,000 more in fees but pocket e7,000 more in profit, something I'm sure Eddie Hobbs would more than agree with.

Beta Bill wrote:

Define a 'good' agent if thats not supposedly a commonly known brand name agent. This is why consumers here get screwed over time and time again because they cant see valid competition when its staring them in the face. At the end of the day all the agents have access to the same advertising media, the same buyers and have equal opportunity to perform well for the vendor. If the 'cheaper' agent achieves a higher sale value then where does your arguement stand?

If it were not for the likes of Remax and other similar franchises the auctioneers in this country would continue to have the cartel they had for many a year. The current competition in the market is a direct result of such new entrants. Four or five years ago it would have been practically unheard of that an agent would be prepared to negotiate fee structure with the client.

I never said it was the most expensive one that was better, merely that if a better agent cost a bit more it could be wise to go with them. the main reason fees are negotiable is because prices have doubled over the last four to five years, not because of new entrants. Remax is crap in general, that's why their agents sell houses quickly, they're commission only and they need to turnover properties quickly in order to be able to pay the rent on their desks - yes they rent their desks. Most of the other franchises are simply advertising and branding networks in order to reduce advertising costs. They're not new in any real sense, existing auctioneers joined them. A good agent is somebody who proactively sells, who tries to get two people bidding against each other in order to drive up the price, who has a list of potential buyers from previous houses they were selling and targets them for your home, who can advise you on how to present your home well, who knows what the last house on your street sold for and what similar properties in the area have sold for (rather than giving an arbitrary guess at what it's worth, pumping up the price in order to secure the commission), who uses myhome.ie and daft.ie (as op said not all do), who knows how to take photos well, who produces a brochure worthy of the name, who responds to your phone calls and shows a genuine interest in selling your property. If you're telling me that going with a guy who's charging 0.5 per cent and hasn't got a single picture on his website and may have no experience or contacts (obviously I'd research it before deciding) is better than going with somebody who for example may have worked for 20 years, is well respected, has referrences and charges 0.25 per cent more then that's fair enough. He could well be but I'd want to see proof of it, I'd want them to show me they achieved premium prices on previous sales, I'd want to know if they had to reduce the asking price, how long the sale took, whether they have any referenences.