Usually you can expect to pay anything between 1% and 2.5% of the selling price of your home. Fees normally exclude VAT, current 20% so add VAT and your fee will be between 1.2 - 3% of the value of your home; for a £300,000 home it can vary between £3,600 and £9,000.  We can help get your agent to compete on cost by independently sharing the workload during the sales process and legal transaction. Once a sale is agreed we can chase solicitors for searches or draft contracts and mortgage brokers for surveys or mortgage offers to ensure an effortless result of exchange and completion. 

 

In particular things to ensure is that the fee covers marketing, and to what extent; photography, preparation of property details and brochures, for sale boards etc.  Avoid agents who insist on sole selling rights for longer than what the regional average is for selling a property like yours in the current market.

 

Never sign an agreement that commits you to pay the agent just for finding you a ready, willing and able purchaser rather than for actually selling the property as this means you may have to pay should the buyer pull out.  You should only use an agent who expects a fee as a result of completion.  Make sure the agreement has a time limit to enable you to change agent if you’re not happy or they are not performing.  You can always negotiate the tie in period; however the average selling time is a reasonable length.  You can even negotiate a ‘no penalty’ notice period of 2 weeks for example, or introduce a sliding scale commission structure dependant on what price they achieve.

 

We advise on who we think is the best agent to sell your home, not the one offering the lowest commission rate but promising to sell it for more than any other estate agent can!