Agents commissions of up to 7% were fine when the average house was R100K but times in the last 20 years have long changed and with the average house sitting on a Million it's no longer fair comms considering the work they do which is not very much to justify their comm. Agents got very greedy and contributed in a large part to the carnage in the property market by artificially driving up prices. In the UK, USA and Australia you will see Agents getting comms of no more than 2% so why are we stuck with people who want between 4-7.5% for doing very little.
Just remember Everything is negotiable. You should be able to get 4% comm (remember the comm is Vatable) but ask exactly what they will do for you and never give a sole mandate for long. In this market don't give sole mandates.
Despite their image, Auctions are not necessarily fire sales for the desperate. Sure some firms have distressed sales divisions but in auctions, people just sometimes use these to test the market and they will set a high reserve price.
Auction Alliance was the very worst I ever had dealings with. They were crooks to the core and cost me 2 sales, where the buyers walked but another smaller auction house had a very good business plan in that they tied up with"reputable" local agents and split the comm on a sale. (frankly in my experience reputable and ethical are oxymorons in the property biz) Both teams doing the work. Result: house never went to auction and was sold quickly by a local agent in a franchise that was completely new to the Atlantic Seaboard. Well ok It wasn't the price we wanted but it could have been worse.
Nothing sells a house quicker than a correctly priced one.
You can try the Private Sale route but be prepared for a lot of time wasters.
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