Estate Agents fees

I always thought Estate Agents worked on a commission basis but now I know in this area they have a basic guaranteed fee of anything from €4000 to €6000 or a percentage of the sale price whichever is the greater of the two.

In the UK and Ireland any Estate Agents I know of works on a percentage basis, is it only in Spain or only in this area they require a guaranteed fee??

We recently sold through Petra Honig and negotiated a fee below your parameters.

I told them how much we wanted - which was a reasonable price - and they sold it within 4 days - so I suppose its a combination of:

Negotiation
A commercially sensible selling price
The demand they have in your area.

We were very pleased with their price and service.

Half-full wrote:I always thought Estate Agents worked on a commission basis but now I know in this area they have a basic guaranteed fee of anything from €4000 to €6000 or a percentage of the sale price whichever is the greater of the two.

In the UK and Ireland any Estate Agents I know of works on a percentage basis, is it only in Spain or only in this area they require a guaranteed fee??

Just like every where ealse they get money for old rope.

be careful of the agent you select too, if you can, find out what others have experienced. the one we used charged the buyer more for the property, and told me less, by the time i found out it was too late. several thousands creamed of illegally to their pockets, ripping off the buyer and me too. this was only last year too. its only when I started asking around, ive heard other stories from other customers too, but sadly it all goes under the category of hear-say. good luck.

Negotiating with the agent is the key.

Also...check prices of the properties with other agents.

It's very common for agents to show you 'lesser' properties in some areas, and then take you to your 'perfect property' at a bargain price.

Quite often, those 'bargain price' properties can be found thousands of Euros cheaper with other agents.

Be aware - that's all. There is at leadt one agent who charges €3000 maximum sales fee, so not all of them are sharks!!!

We didn't find out until we went to the Notary together that the Buyers had paid 10000 Euros more than we got for the Property. This was in 2004 so it's been going on a long time. Also when we bought our next place we had to pay some in cash which didn't go down too well as my Husband had been in Banking since he was 17. It's very easy to be nieve when buying in Spain because it's all so different to the UK.

The most interesting point when visiting the Notary, was the solicitor asking us to bring 1000 euros cash in a white envelope to the signing. After we had completed I mentioned to the solicitor that I still had the cash in an envelope and was I to hand it over to someone. The solicitor took the envelope, smiled encouragingly and disappeared into a room, returning empty handed. We all shook hands and left the building, I'm still unsure as to where the 1000 euros ended up, but as Janjan says it's all so different to the UK and being naïve sometimes seems to be the most appropriate option.

Janjan wrote:We didn't find out until we went to the Notary together that the Buyers had paid 10000 Euros more than we got for the Property. This was in 2004 so it's been going on a long time. Also when we bought our next place we had to pay some in cash which didn't go down too well as my Husband had been in Banking since he was 17. It's very easy to be nieve when buying in Spain because it's all so different to the UK.

That read like a clear case of fraud- the agent robbed you of 10k. I think I would have sought legal advice or approached the Police on that one.

I recently avoided a bit of a dodgy deal with (probably) the same agent