ReMax

Got quotes off Remax and DNG before for a house I was selling - same scenario as you insofar that the % were different (Remax lower).

The difference I did note was that DNG had a higher asking price for the house(5k more) so maybe they demand better prices???

Anyway thats my actual experience of it - no doubt a couple of people will post here how completely wrong I am because they know everything about property and I don't (sarcasm)

RJ

Hi,

I am trying to buy a house in Kerry at the moment so I can only speak as a buyer but I prefer Remax. We have been trying to negotiate a purchase of a property in North Kerry with Sherry Fitz and its has been a nightmare :mad: . They do not return calls they do not bother to let us know what is happening and most of all they are 9 times out of 10 off hand on the phone. Yesterday my husband and I rang at the same time to see what would happen, one person said he was out of the office the other he was on the phone ... they can't even get their stories straight!

Remax however are much more approachable and easier to call they are always ready to listen and I trust them a lot more than Sherry Fitz who are trying to get us to pay an extra 15,000 euro for a house that we know is on the market with another agent for much less. :rolleyes:

Good luck with your house sale - if you are selling in Kerry/Limerick let me know I might be interested

The above advise is very good and I'd like to add that the most important thing is the net proceeds of the disposal. You only get one shot at selling a house and if you have to call ten agents to find the most appropriate one do it.

I almost sold this place in 1998 and between the top pre-sale valuation there was a sliding scale to 60% of that estimate. Eventually I nearly went I a colleague of a freind who explained it perfectly to me; " Not only will some agents promise what they can't deliver or others that will sell too quickly to get a fast commision the agent involved has to see the value in the house or in my case see the value in the house and have the challenge of the client - agent relationship"

The type of house involved is the most important criteria; if a number of comparable properties have sold locally recently and values are known I would lean towards the cheaper end of the agent scale. If the property has any unique characteristics or there is no directly comparable evidence then go for a www.myhome.ie agent such as DNG or Sherry Fitz

Personally I am very sceptical of Re-max as many of their agents have no formal training in the legal or structural issues that potential purchasers want professional advice on and unless your house is identical to a few that have sold recently I would pay the extra 0.5% to get an agent that has gone to the trouble of acquiring formal qualifications.

Remember that 98.5% 0f 205,000 is more than 99% of 202,500

No the agents pay remax for use of the franchise as opposed to them being salaried, whilst some are MIAVI qualified I have heard of some that are not and dealt with others who really hadn't a notion; particularly on the commercial side.

My own preference in the Dublin region are IAVI qualified firms that aren't too big but have been around a while or hot shots from the larger firms that have set up recently after say 10 years with one or more of the larger agencies. Both of these groups will do deals and know the areas well enough to identify limitations on value and what times of year to release onto the market etc.

Moonbeam wrote:

I have viewed alot of houses with Remax and they have always been friendly efficent on time and helpfuil.
The same can not be said for the majority of the rest of them

That's you buying! He is selling. What's good for you doesn't mean anything if it's bad to him. A quick efficient sale for the sellers is fine if they are willing to not get the max price.
Remax training from my understanding is about quick sales to max commision for the agent from what I have read. THey may be independents using a franchise but so is McDonalds and they train them how to operate and most times there is some QC checks. Remax don't want their brand being damaged. Their name represent quick sales in the US.

The market moves seasonaly, agents like remax will tell you what you are likely to get on the basis of a quick sale and the values quoted are generally based upon prices acheived early in that season or from the last season. The bigger agencies will through better research and intuitive skills based on experience give a value based upon a three to six month time frame for disposal.

The questions I would ask of all agents would be price for 1> quick sale, 2> market rising and if the market doesn't rise what advertising outlay will I need to get the property noticed outside the immediate district again?

I would also ask what promotional strategy they have, what retained buyers they have on their books that may be interested, what this package will cost and what level of acheivement they have acheived in a month, 2 months, 3 months and how many properties took over 6 months to sell or were withdrawn after 6 months.

It is prudent to agree a timescale for the disposal which gives the agency either 3 months or 6 months to get the sale or the instruction ends.

I would balance the level of commission with the promotional budget and the timescale of the instruction, what may be a small commission may either cost more with advertising or acheive a lower price due to a lack of or potential innappropriate nature of it.

0.5% is the difference which comes to 500 per 100,000 it is not a lot to pay for years of experience and failure to do so could cost 1000's in the net disposal proceeds. I would return to any agent who quoted in excess of 1.5% and attempt to secure that rate. If the fee is lower than that you are unlikely to be given the time required, it is worth remembering that the Remax agent must pay a proportion to the franchise holder and they in turn to remax inc.

I would not want an agent who had no formal education in legal, taxation and planning matters selling my house, as punctual and charming as they may be there is no substitute for knowing the answers to the questions.

ck1 wrote:

My mother was moving and as the house was a family home for more than 50 years originally belonging to my grandmother, my mother asked the question as to whether she was a first time buyer. .

In fairness you don't ask a brick layer the tensile strength of the wall. They shouldn't have given any answer but if you were to believe them or something said here really would be a bit silly.

Blingarella wrote:

I cant believe Sherrys were €18 million off the mark on a property. How wrong can you be?! Ill be very happy to see some PROPER guide prices coming in.

In fairness auction prices can go nuts and bring up lots of surprises. THere is a problem but the examples given are a bit biased. In the US some states solves the problem by having a law that means the purchase price of property has to be registerd so people can se what is actually happening in the market. Here you have to trust the estate agents or the asking price.

I cant get to a paper, can someone post the details of that guide price story from the Times....where was the house, how much did it sell for in the end, what was the guide?

I cant believe they were off by 18mil. That seems outrageous, unless two people just really wanted it badly and the bidding went all out of control.

Blingarella wrote:

Neither, as it happens. And theres going nuts and theres GOING NUTS!!!! I mean, c'mon - €18 million - 3 or even 6 maybe, just maybe....but 18 - you've got to be kidding me.

Yes there is but how many stories have you heard about other auction items that aren't houses selling for more than the guide? Didn't a Irish turf bucket go for many times the guide? Property can be very diffent but when you are talking about certain development potential an extra 18million can jbe worth it. I say a grade 1 0r 2 listed church on the southside go for 5 or 6 times the asking price. Maddness as it was going to cost unbelivebale money to repair and everything was going to take so much time and effort. The guide was reasonable the people bidding weren't.
How many auctions have you been to?

Victor wrote:

It went for something like €46m, but it had a few acres attached.

Of course not, but just by looking at it he'll tell you the compressive strength*, the usual denfing factor for a wall.

Compressive strength is indicated by block colour.

After studying engineer I can tell you the tensile stregth of a wall is pretty important. A brick layer does not know any of the figures he knows how to build a wall and may know from experience what looks right but that's it. My point is you ask a specific question to a person who is not qualified they probably don't know the answer and shouldn't be trusted.

I find that agents Do set the guide price artificially low when advertising in the National media to attract interest from a wider audience. This practice is not ethical but everyone is fully aware of it and virtually every potential purchaser will ask the agent what they will feel it will sell for. Early in the sales period which is generally three to four weeks they will not budge from this figure. However in the final week it is advisable if you are considering a bid to ask again telling them that you are going to the trouble of having a survey done and that the survey costs money.

While there will be crazy individual results up and down at auctions there is no real excuse for an agent to be too much more than 5-7% out from the final figure quoted. There will how ever be some bizare results although a lot of this can be put down to purchasers seeing unrealistic development potential.

An over eager agent who knows nothing about the legal, taxation and planning side may factor in too much development value go in at 1.5m and not attract any interest, in the above case obviously two people lost it at the auction which is what every vendor wants but doesn't happen very often. If you attend an auction it is very easy to see from peoples behaviour if they have paid too much or not by their reaction. If anyone ever has an afternoon off going to auctions can be a very educational afternoon.

Thomond Pk wrote:

I find that agents Do set the guide price artificially low when advertising in the National media to attract interest from a wider audience. This practice is not ethical but everyone is fully aware of it and virtually every potential purchaser will ask the agent what they will feel it will sell for.

Except real estate agents have stated in national media that the guide price is based on 10-15% below expecting sale price. Mentioned on the radio several times today alone. It is up to the consumer to be informed but the market should be more transparent. The idea that life is fair by principle is a little nieve. A self regulating body won't stop the current trend. By the time the government react it will be too late

83 Anglesea Rd is a disgrace guess who the owner is?

I have experience of one Remax agent who came to value our house which we are currently selling. He spent ten minutes in the place, didn't even set foot in the back garden (one of the selling points as it's sunny and mature), and generally gave an impression of not wanting to hang about. His fee would have been 1.25%, as were the other two agents we saw.

He suggested we list the house (a mid-terrace 1940s council house in Crumlin) at 300,000 and we should get 317,500 for it. The agent we ended up going with spent an hour and a half with us the night he viewed it and gave us much sound advice, both on selling this place and buying our new one. He advised listing the house at 340,000.

We were sceptical as that seemed high but we went with it. Within a week we had an offer of 335,000. That then fell through. In the meantime, Remax listed a house, basically identical to ours, the next street up, for 315,000. I then get a phone call from the Remax agent saying he noted we had gone with our agents and that it was on for 340,000.

He told me that was an insane price, that no house of that type had gone for that money etc. etc. The inference was that we were stupid for not going with him. The call pissed me off but I decided ringing back or trying to track down some superior or another to complain would likely be pointless.

Then Remax listed a house, identical to ours, the next street up, at 315,000. A week later, another call from him to say that it had gone sale agreed at 352,000. No mention of how 340,000 was crazy money and were we mad or what etc. etc. He says he has under bidders on that place who want to see ours, will we ditch our agents and let him bring his clients down?

I said I'd ring him back and then didn't bother. His clients aren't blind, they can see the place is for sale :rolleyes: Also his two phone calls and general manner lead me to believe he's an underhand scumbag and I have no interest in dealing with someone like that.

So now our place is sale agreed again at 340,000 and the sale on the Remax place fell through when the buyer realised he was paying daft money.

That's my experience with this particular Remax agent, naturally your mileage may vary, but from what I've heard in general, don't use them if you want the best possible price for your place - they're on commission so all they're interested in is getting that Sale Agreed sign up and the booking deposit in as fast as possible.

I have had nothing but bad experiences with ReMax in North Dublin as I have tried to purchase a place recently. They are just terrible! Very unprofessional. Stick to Sherry Fitz.