Estate agent.. multiple

Tongs of Destiny

Tongs of Destiny

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Have been using the same estate agent for the last 6 months as per the "sole mandate" it's now expired. Have had no one put an offer in. Place is renovated, well priced and cheaper than others in the complex, it's beautiful. To me the agent is hopeless. I want another agent, well multiple to really push the sale. Question : If you have multiple agents how do you agree on the commission between agents? The old agent was 4.5% plus vat, do I then tell the new agent you must also be 4.5% plus vat? Does the winning agent in a sale take everything or do they split it etc?

Any ideas or what have others done?
 
Wrath of Khan said:
Have been using the same estate agent for the last 6 months as per the "sole mandate" it's now expired. Have had no one put an offer in. Place is renovated, well priced and cheaper than others in the complex, it's beautiful. To me the agent is hopeless. I want another agent, well multiple to really push the sale. Question : If you have multiple agents how do you agree on the commission between agents? The old agent was 4.5% plus vat, do I then tell the new agent you must also be 4.5% plus vat? Does the winning agent in a sale take everything or do they split it etc?

Any ideas or what have others done?
Click to expand...
Agent who brings a buyer gets the commission. There's no splitting.

4.,5% seems excessive to me
 
I sold a piece of land, I told the agents what I wanted out.
I warned them not to bring me a cent less.

One came with an offer R300k less than my asking amount, I told him to F off.
He mumbled something about needing to be flexible as I put the phone down.

Next one got me R80000 MORE than my amount, told me I had to sign and submit THAT DAY. I got suspicious. Checked the agreement they were rushing me to sign. Their Comm of R160k came off, meaning I'd get R80k less than my price.
Joke is, this snake was a friend of mine....

Third guy finally got me my amount, he made R60k.

As I said to each one, I want muly amount, whatever they get above it they can have, even if it's a million.
But I knew I was asking top dollar....
 
Sounds exactly what I am going through.. I had to fight to get the comm down, its a joke. And the agent won't budge or give some leeway on it, they would rather lose a sale than a few grand here or there, they're revolting.

Maybe it's best to let the estate agents duel it out so they work harder to sell it. I'm worried splitting the comm will lead to one agent doing nothing and the other working hard.
 
Sole mandate only makes sense for an expensive property where the agent is going to put in a lot of effort and money in marketing the property. I bet your agent did nothing you couldn't have done yourself.

Just send it to a few estate agents, state your price you want in your pocket and don't sign any sole mandates. Also check that there is no auto renew clause in the one you did sign.
 
When you sell property, everyone involved act like the owner is their client and they want the best for the owner. They all tend to work together to extort as much money from the owner. The entire process is designed and done to rip off the seller. The estate agent is the ring leader in this racket. After an agent gets a buyer, never let the agent choose the lawyer and house inspectors. They all work together to screw the seller and pass brown envelopes of the seller`s money under the table.
 
It's very simple: sell the place yourself. An estate agent has become a pointless and useless part of the process.

I sold my house myself...not a cent wasted on commissions.
 
B-1 said:
Sole mandate only makes sense for an expensive property where the agent is going to put in a lot of effort and money in marketing the property. I bet your agent did nothing you couldn't have done yourself.

Just send it to a few estate agents, state your price you want in your pocket and don't sign any sole mandates. Also check that there is no auto renew clause in the one you did sign.
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Agreed. I am in the process of selling due to emigration. Signed a sole mandate with the same agent who sold us the place a few years ago.

We listed middle of November; mandate expires next month. Had an offer last week which we accepted.

To me, having the agent deal with potential buyers and all that was worth it. She did an amazing job getting the place listed with good photos and all the other kak. She promised the place would be sold by March - so far she's delivered on that. Pending bond approval of the current offer in place.

If it was a small complex unit; probably would have just listed it myself.
 
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Priapus said:
Agreed. I am in the process of selling due to emigration. Signed a sole mandate with the same agent who sold us the place a few years ago.

We listed middle of November; mandate expires next month. Had an offer last week which we accepted.

To me, having the agent deal with potential buyers and all that was worth it. She did an amazing job getting the place listed with good photos and all the other kak. She promised the place would be sold by March - so far she's delivered on that. Pending bond approval of the current offer in place.

If it was a small complex unit; probably would have just listed it myself.
Click to expand...

Ja only thing is it's in a different province so can't sell it myself otherwise 100% I would do it.
I just don't want any more renters as it's a pain not being able to go over and see what they've destroyed or need help with etc.
I've got a good transferring attorney which I've used before so they will be used.

Do you think 4.5% + vat is too much? Property is advertised at R2.2m
What would be a fair commission for these thieves?
 
Wrath of Khan said:
Ja only thing is it's in a different province so can't sell it myself otherwise 100% I would do it.
I just don't want any more renters as it's a pain not being able to go over and see what they've destroyed or need help with etc.
I've got a good transferring attorney which I've used before so they will be used.

Do you think 4.5% + vat is too much? Property is advertised at R2.2m
What would be a fair commission for these thieves?
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These guys charge R44 000 incl (so 2% in your case) and these guys 3%.
 
I mean only thing I'd add is, if you say the place is renovated and well priced yet no-one has put in an offer in 6 months, I would ask if it really is well priced, bad agent notwithstanding? It is the market that decides if a place is priced right and no offers suggests otherwise.
Also what I've seen agents do, this is when we were looking, they'd change something small in the listing, add a pic or two, and it would show as a new listing. Properties on the market for a while tend to get bad mojo around them.
Good luck either way.
 
Sounds like you are competent enough to do it yourself. Agents are useless slithery snakes. Too bad you are outside of province. Can't you team up with someone you trust?

Everything is online these days anyways. Get a real estate photographer to do a full video walk through for you and take some stunning pics.
 
Wrath of Khan said:
Sounds exactly what I am going through.. I had to fight to get the comm down, its a joke. And the agent won't budge or give some leeway on it, they would rather lose a sale than a few grand here or there, they're revolting.

Maybe it's best to let the estate agents duel it out so they work harder to sell it. I'm worried splitting the comm will lead to one agent doing nothing and the other working hard.
Click to expand...
As Manny said, tell them what you want out and no sillybuggers.
 
Why do you care what comm they get/ask? You have your price and whatever commission they ask is their problem.
If they come with offers lower than your asking price, then you can negotiate on their commission.
 
Changing agents got our house sold.
We did also drop the price a bit but it was the refresh that sold it. They take new pictures and get different buyers in the door.
I don't think that the previous agent was the issue, things just got stale, eventually your house just gets glossed over because its been on the market so long.

The one thing I'll never do is have more than one agent at a time. As a buyer its a massive red flag to see all those different signs outside, looks like desperation.

Funny thing - with the house that we bought, we didn't look at it because of the price and the pictures made it look terrible. We looked at other houses in the area and saw that the price had gone down, so we checked it out.
The agent that was selling that house was terrible and we could never get a viewing. So we asked another agent with the same company to help. She got a viewing and sold us the house (which looked better in RL).
Then we got her to sell our house - which was rather urgant now as we had commited to buying the new one. I think she retired after that
So the right agent is critical, the entire selling and buying process was two years for us so saw a LOT of really terrible agents.
 
RedViking said:
Sounds like you are competent enough to do it yourself. Agents are useless slithery snakes. Too bad you are outside of province. Can't you team up with someone you trust?

Everything is online these days anyways. Get a real estate photographer to do a full video walk through for you and take some stunning pics.
Click to expand...

it's so difficult to ask friends or family to sell the place as they have normal 9-5 jobs etc, and it has to be someone I really trust as I have to give them the house keys..
from now on, never ever buy a house or rent it out in a different province, it's a nightmare.. a brothel down the road would have been a better investment
 
Sepeng said:
I mean only thing I'd add is, if you say the place is renovated and well priced yet no-one has put in an offer in 6 months, I would ask if it really is well priced, bad agent notwithstanding? It is the market that decides if a place is priced right and no offers suggests otherwise.
Also what I've seen agents do, this is when we were looking, they'd change something small in the listing, add a pic or two, and it would show as a new listing. Properties on the market for a while tend to get bad mojo around them.
Good luck either way.
Click to expand...
It's probably market related stagnation, or the OP had a very bad agent.

If so, I'd personally put up an add with some great pics on the normal property websites and wait it out.
 
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