Estate Agent fees

ambroseg1 said:
LMAO.....struggles to justify agent fees, yet is from a "conveyancing" firm. Lawyers fees to transfer a home and register a bond is even more of a farce.
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^this

They just run your details into a template and submit documents. And the fees are ridiculously expensive for minimal effort.

Then they also charge you for a phone call for a progress report. And they always add some misc charges that make no sense.

Also the kickbacks that go between agents and crown crown conveyancers should be illegal.
 
An interesting little known snippet is that if you run a law firm that wants to do business for the bank on behalf of the bank i.e. You want a share of gravy going around doing bond registrations etc then to be appointed to the approved list you will be obliged to undertake never to litigate against said bank.
Source- was in media several years ago noseweek
 
Technically a person can register the property in the deeds office, there is actually no need for a lawyer to get involved. It is quite a process tough.
 
Take the money and run.. You could wait months before you find another buyer..
 
I would separate your justification concern from what you actually want. You want a sale and you want Rx out. The amount the agent earns is irrelevent.
You don't go to the shops and concern yourself how much the guy who made the packaging gets out of you buying toothpaste, you look at the price and either buy it or not (or haggle).
 
Hosehead said:
Back in the days when 1 million rand was the expensive end of the home sales market and when average sales were around R300k Agents commission were more justifiable at 4%-7% but that was decades ago and has no relevance on today's prices which same commission structure is literally obscene ...which is why we will see a new estate agency Act shortly
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4% - 7% in commission is not really a lot on a 1 million rand home considering the cost of living today.
 
crackersa said:
4% - 7% in commission is not really a lot on a 1 million rand home considering the cost of living today.
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Yes if they selling a house only every 3 months.
Ridiculous if it's monthly...
 
//Open mandate on property//

Can agent claim commision if buyer goes direct to seller, but there's an agency "For Sale" board outside the property.
Buyer never had contact with agent or agency.

IOW - does a mere for sale sign constitute introduction of the property?
 
raind33r said:
//Open mandate on property//

Can agent claim commision if buyer goes direct to seller, but there's an agency "For Sale" board outside the property.
Buyer never had contact with agent or agency.

IOW - does a mere for sale sign constitute introduction of the property?
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Yes.
 
Sole Mandate yes. Then they can even claim if you sell it to a buddie at work.

Open mandate means anyone can sell it. So if your mother helps you find a buyer then you can give your mother commission or not,depending your agreement.

In this case you seem to imply the board was there(was there only 1 board or others too?), Joe Soap saw the sign,knocked on your door and asked to see it.

If multiple boards attractedthe person they might all ask for commision,
But they would have to prove their board did the work.


Did you advertise on private property, property 24, myroof etc? Then you could argue the buyer saw your ad.
 
As far as I'm aware open mandate they cannot claim the commission, but you'd have to show them it wasn't the board that got the buyer interested.
 
xrapidx said:
you don't have to use the agents firm.
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You unfortunately have to use the sellers lawyers when buying :-(. I know this is old but I thought I would point it out.
The funniest thing is my new place registered in my name about a month ago, the lawyers were like oh we will go to the CoJ to do the registering of the rates and taxes for you, but we will charge R1300 for that, I was like fook that I'll go do it myself and it took me about 20 minutes.
8 years ago the previous lawyers for my old place did it for gratis (well it was included in their fees)
 
I dont know why people still use Estate Agents in day and age. I recently sold a property privately, and I would recommend it to anyone. Once you realise how little an Estate agent actually does you will never use them again.

For anyone interested:

1. Make sure your house is clean and take some pics.

2. Create a listing on Private Property and or Property24 (I avoided Scamtree & OLX, due to the caliber of potential buyers hanging around there). If at any stage you are unsure of what to include in your listing, just look at a few other examples on these websites. You can also find a "market related price" on these websites. Adverts will cost about R1500 each. Well worth it though.

3. Instead of showing potential buyers your property every other day, just tell any interested party to come on a designated day that suits you. (just like estate agents have show houses on Sundays). Its much less hassle, and inconvenience.

4. Private Property and Property24 will recommend a conveyancer. Once you have an interested party, contact the conveyancer to draw up an OTP. Get your buyer to sign the OTP and send it to conveyancer. DONE.

5. congratulations you just saved hundreds of thousands of rands.

6. (optional) tell all the Estate agents (who will contact you) to GTFO.
 
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