Estate agency fees explained

With house prices staying low for the foreseeable future, it is important as a seller to be aware of the costs of selling a house and moving. Between legal fees, minor repairs, estate agency fees and of course the stamp duty on the purchase it can be hard to swallow the cost of moving home and for some UK home owners the cost to sell a house is too much for them to consider moving. However, for those that have no choice in selling their home, they will be looking to sell their house as cheap as possible.

What you get for the estate agency fees

Selling a house in the UK

Estate agents fees for selling a house in the UK can run into the thousands. It can often be difficult to see how large house selling fees can be justified. But if you analyse the service and look at what you are paying an estate agency to do, it becomes easier to understand the huge cost. Take into account you are paying estate agents fees for:

• The time it takes to put together valuation guidance; which includes researching the local market, looking at past sales data, archived data and local market fluctuations. This needs to then be written up in a report or at the very least translated during the home visit or over the phone.
• A visit to come and take photos and floorplan measurements of your house (plus the cost of travel)
• Someone to write up the details of your property to make it sound appealing
• Someone to come out and to install a For Sale sign outside your house
• Someone to organise the phone and online enquiries for viewings
• Someone to show people around your house
• The cost of the estate agency's prime location high street office
• The cost of the estate agency's unnecessary fleet of cars
• The cost of marketing your house on the internet
• The cost of newspaper marketing (even though often unproductive)
• The cost of producing glossy coloured window cards and brochures to market your property
• The cost of negotiation
• The cost of weekly progression of sale to check the process is running smoothly

Whilst HouseSimple.com offers a very full service, we have removed what we feel are the unnecessary or ineffectual parts of the service. We do all of the above EXCEPT we ask YOU to host the viewings (we organise them for you of course). Our local representatives work from home but travel a certain radius from their home. This way we save on the cost of the High Street shop which in the age of the internet is no longer necessary (95% of all buyers now search online). We also don't have an unneccessary fleet of cars, in our many years of experience we've never had any clients request to be chauffeured to a property. Newspaper marketing doesn't work anymore. Fact.

So, the savings from these ineffectual parts of the service do start to add up and whilst we pump alot of this into extra online marketing, we pass on the savings of £1,000's in fees. We've saved our clients over £22 million in fees so far. This is nothing to be sniffed at. We are trying to do a good thing for the industry and it is slowly starting to take heed.

How much will it cost to sell my house?

Selling via the high street

UK estate agents charge anywhere between 1.5% - 4% of the property's price in house-selling fees not forgetting the additional 20% for VAT. A typical estate agent's fee could total around £7,680 after VAT, in London the average House price is approximately £350,000 which could equate to commission as high as £16,800. Add to this a solicitor's conveyancing fees, which average around £1,000. That is a huge bill to be deducted from the final sale price of your house. The cost of estate agency fees on your house sale could be the difference between affording (or not) a new kitchen or even a new conservatory on your new home.

Selling your home online

The cost of selling a house online is typically between £350 and £1,000. Property owners looking for a cheap house sale can save themselves many thousands of pounds in estate agents' fees by using an online agency instead of a traditional high street agent. Online companies are able to offer cheap estate agent fees and fixed rates because they are able to reach out to a nationwide audience via the internet and do not have the same overheads as traditional estate agents, such as paying a premium for a well-located high street office.

HouseSimple.com also provide a much discounted conveyancing service to complement their cheap estate agent fees.

How to minimise estate agency fees

The cheapest way to sell your home in the UK and minimise your house-selling fees is to sell your house online using an online estate agency like HouseSimple.com. Using a reliable online estate agent is recommended to ensure that you have the support you need when you are looking for the cheapest way to sell house, flat or apartment.

To help you keep within your budget, HouseSimple.com offer fixed fee packages no matter what your house is worth. They currently offer a sliding scale of fees where you can choose to pay everything upfront and save the most amount of money assuming you sell, if you are less certain of a sale they also offer 2 other options where you can pay less upfront and more on completion of the sale. HouseSimple.com now offer a bespoke build your own online house-selling service so that you may choose the sales and marketing support that best suits your property and your lifestyle. The following points will help you to cut down the estate agency fees.

Be realistic

Be realistic about the time and valuation when you choose to sell your house online, based on what you know about the area and the condition of your property. If you are not realistic it doesn't matter who you choose to market your property the viewers will not want to pay over the odds. An online house-selling package will be the cheapest way to sell your house and if you are realistic with the price then there is no reason why you would not sell.

Play by the rules

When you have marketed your home with an online estate agent, make sure you are regularly available to check emails and phone calls in case any queries arise or potential buyers put in an offer. Reacting quickly will ensure that your house sale runs smoothly and you will be able to take it off the market as soon as possible, saving you money on fees.

The true cost of online estate agency fees

If the savings you could achieve by selling your house online sound too good to be true, take a look at the facts and figures:

• The lowest possible amount you can pay to sell your home online with HouseSimple.com is £325.
• You can also save money on your conveyancing or solicitor fees, which start at just £399.

What you will get for your online agency fee

• Professional photographs and floor plans of your property
• Property valuation guidance
• A professionally written sales description of your house, to help people find it on the internet
• A full-colour brochure that anyone can print out when viewing your house online
• A smart For sale board installed outside your property
• Full telephone support from the customer service team
• Your home advertised online to millions of potential buyers through services such as Rightmove, Find A Property, Primelocation and Globrix
• Full control over viewing appointments
• Feedback from viewings
• A choice of services to suit your budget
• The protection of the Property Ombudsman scheme, and
• A professional agent to negotiate a sales price on your behalf once offers are received, and to carry out the entire sale progression to completion if this included with the service that you sign up for.

There are so many benefits of selling your house online call HouseSimple.com on 0330 111 0070 today to find out how we could help you.

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Other useful articles:

• How to Sell Your House
• Private House Sales Information
• How to sell your house online