Real estate purchase: can you negotiate agency fees?

When selling a home, real estate agency fees may be borne by the seller or buyer. An important choice because they oscillate in a wide range of 4% to 8% of the sale price.

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Buying your home is the purchase of a lifetime, they say. For the good reason that in addition to the hundreds of thousands of euros to be paid for the property alone, several thousand euros of “notary fees” and agency fees are added. “Sales price 200,500 euros net seller, agency fees 9,500 euros”. This real estate announcement is of great interest to you, especially in the current context of falling credit rates. If only, there were not these nearly 10,000 euros in agency fees payable by the buyer, to be paid on the day of signing the authentic deed of sale at the notary… On the paper, nothing prevents you from trying to negotiate a discount with the agency. Especially if the ad has been in the window for several months, a sign that the property is struggling to sell. In fact, “It is rare for potential buyers to ask us for an increase in our costs. It’s the sale price of the property that they will negotiate”assures the boss of a national agency network. It is in fact more interesting for the buyer to obtain a discount of 10,000 euros on a sale price of 200,500 euros than to try to scrounge 1,000 euros out of 9,500 euros in agency fees… Moreover , agency fees payable by the buyer allow him to pay notary fees on 200,500 euros “only” in our example, and not on 210,000 euros if the 9,500 euros fees were at the responsibility of the seller.

Those who rarely fail to negotiate agency fees are precisely the sellers, in the event that they have chosen to bear them. When the property is put up for sale, before signing a mandate with an agency, “We have to bring in competition. In places where goods sell quickly and at the price, the agency should not take the maximum from you», approves a major French real estate loan broker. Agency fees oscillate between 4% and…8% of the price of the property, specifies this professional.

Agency fees, the price of peace of mind?

“This is the price to pay for the estimation of the property, the taking of professional photos, the production of a video allowing virtual visits and the support of the client in the production of the obligatory documents which are the technical diagnostics (DPE , asbestos, etc.) or even the state-datedretorts our network boss. We may agree to lower our fees but then we do not provide the same services. The DPE, the client takes care of it alone, in this case…” Given the importance, now, of the “green value” of housing and the difficulty of finding a trustworthy diagnostician, it is perhaps better not to skimp on agency fees…

But, according to the network boss, it is especially at the time of the purchase proposal that sellers try to negotiate agency fees. “By signing the mandate, a seller agreed to 15,000 euros in fees, based on a sale price of 290,000 euroshe illustrates. But when the buyer offered 285,000 euros, the seller asked us to lower our commission by 5,000 euros as well!”he exclaims. It is understandable that he refused. “And then, if you paid 8% fees but the agency sold your property in three weeks, it’s worth it”recognizes the broker. Especially in the middle of the real estate crisis.