One of the few advantages of the current state of the property market is that the shortage of quality properties is making it possible for some sellers to negotiate reduced commission with estate agents. 

And home sellers are definitely looking to save money. A recent survey from the Office of Fair Trading found that a third of buyers and sellers would consider using a property website to sell privately, although the vast majority still use estate agents. 

Millions of people visit property websites each month with Primelocation and Findaproperty particularly popular.  And it saves buyers a considerable amount of time.  For example, the majority of all UK estate agents are members of Rightmove representing around 20,000 agents. They are all in one place with an efficient search engine that will sort the properties according to your criteria – price, number of bedrooms, location etc. The same applies to other market leaders like Primelocation and Findaproperty which use similar search systems.

But these are not private sales.  The properties that appear on these and many other sites are put there by estate agents. Buyers must contact the agent direct.  This is a powerful reason for using an estate agent who is a member of one of these popular marketing sites when you sell.  Your property will be seen by the greatest number of individuals looking for a specific property in your area and price bracket.

The OFT survey of over 700 estate agents found that 88% of both buyers and sellers were satisfied with the service provided by their estate agent – a higher level than five years ago (74%) - so they must be doing some things right.

And there are important reasons for using an estate agent.  First, local price variations can be enormous - even from street to street.  The agent is likely to have sold similar properties locally and will have a good idea what your property is really worth and how many potential buyers he has on his books who might be interested. 

Chartered surveyors, valuers and estate agents all use ‘comparables’ – although you can also check and find out what prices similar properties in your area have sold at on sites like www.nethouseprices.com, www.ourproperty.co.uk and many more.  Most are based on house price data from the Land Registry and allow you to filter right down to a specific street.  The professionals use this information too, as well as their own sale price statistics.

The OFT report revealed that the average commission charged by estate agents nationally is 1.6% but it can be anything up to 3% so big money can be saved by negotiating a reduction.  Most agents won’t admit to doing this.  The National Association of Estate Agents simply says it doesn’t set commission levels and various individual estate agents refuse to say whether commission is negotiable.  But it clearly is.  According to the OFT, 28% of sellers successfully negotiated a fee below that offered as standard.