Q. "I´m thinking of selling my house, and don´t know whether to use an estate agent, or sell privately. Who pays the agent fees and what are they?"
Wrong Answer: "The buyer pays but best to sell privately, then no-one has to pay any agent fees - you´ll save thousands!!"
Right Answer: "The buyer might deliver the fees to the agent but the fees will be deducted from the sellers proceeds, so actually it is the seller who pays the fees and the invoice for the fees is given to the seller, not the buyer.
As for saving money by not using an agent, this is only true if you find a buyer who is willing to pay the same as a client your agent might have found. However, because we are constantly in contact with many potential buyers and have databases of clients we can market to, and because some of us (but not all) are likely to be able to take better photographs, videos and descriptions and advertise widely on expensive portals, and are happy to spend all day driving clients backwards and forwards to your property and similar ones for clients to compare with yours, we are likely to sell your property quickly and at a price high enough to cover our fees anyway.
It is certainly not easy money as the hours can be long and the overheads can mean that even a small agency has to sell 1 or 2 properties a month just to break even. However I would recommend that if you choose to use an agent you ask not only what their fees are, but if that includes the fees for any other agents that might get "involved" in the sale otherwise you could end up losing a higher percentage of your proceeds than just the listing agents fees.
The agent can also advise you regarding plusvalia tax, capital gains retention, cost of habitation and energy certificates, cost of adding any extensions or swimming pools onto the deeds etc and other things the seller has to pay, which if you aren't properly warned about prior to setting a sale price, you could end up selling at a price which leads to a disappointing net return for you. Selling a house without an agent can be like using a mouse trap but saving money by not buying the cheese.
If you would like us to market your property professionally we charge 4% with a minimum of 4,000 euros plus sales tax and we can be contacted on
info@villasfox.com.
Good luck with your sale!
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