Playbook, estate agency
The fee is a percentage of a number that does not exist yet
A seller asking what it would cost to sell is asking for two numbers at once and only knows about one of them. The fee is a percentage, and a percentage of nothing is nothing until somebody has decided what the property would be marketed at. That decision is made at an appointment, the appointment is free, and it is also the appointment at which the instruction is won. All of which means the honest reply here is a rate and a mechanism rather than a sum.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for quotes and estimates holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The charge is written as a percentage with tax stated separately, so turning it into money requires a marketing price the agency has not set, and any figure produced before that point is arithmetic on an invented input.
- The estimate does not become payable when it is agreed. Commission falls due on completion rather than when an offer is accepted, so a seller who reaches an accepted offer and then goes no further is in a different clause entirely.
- The appraisal that produces the missing number is free and is also a sales appointment, which sellers know perfectly well, so pretending it is a neutral measuring exercise reads badly and pretending it is not free costs the instruction.
- The same six words arrive just as often from a landlord, and their estimate is a monthly deduction from rent for as long as the tenancy runs rather than a single sum at the end of a sale.
How it arrives
- how much would it cost me to sell my house
- do you add tax on top of the percentage
- what would you charge for a flat like mine
- do i pay anything if it does not sell
- when do i actually hand over the commission
- can you give me a rough idea before the valuation
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The fee basis, written as a rate rather than a price | The percentage you charge on a sale, whether tax sits on top of it or inside it, and the minimum fee if you operate one. Write the rate and the tax position in the same sentence, because a seller comparing two agents in an evening is comparing after tax figures and will assume whichever reading suits them. |
|---|---|
| The point at which the fee becomes payable | That commission is earned on completion rather than on an accepted offer, and what happens if the sale falls through between the two. This is the single most misunderstood term in the agreement and it is the one that produces the angriest conversation later. |
| What the market appraisal involves | How long the valuer is in the house, what they bring, whether recent comparable sales are left behind, whether it costs anything and whether it commits the seller to anything. This is what the assistant offers in place of a figure, so it has to be worth the half hour it asks for. |
| The lettings version of the same question | The management percentage taken from rent each month, the set up charge if there is one, and anything charged at renewal. A landlord asking for an estimate is asking about an ongoing deduction, and answering with a sales commission is answering somebody else's question. |
The reply
Our sales fee is a percentage of the agreed sale price with tax on top, and the rate is set out on the fees page [1]. It is earned on completion rather than when an offer comes in, which is worth knowing because the two can be months apart [2]. I cannot turn the percentage into a pound figure for you, because that needs a marketing price and only a valuer who has seen the property can put one on it. The appraisal costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Leave your name, email and the address and somebody will ring to arrange it.
It gives the rate and the tax position in one breath, because a seller who has to ask twice assumes the second answer is worse. Naming completion as the trigger deals with the term sellers most often discover late. The refusal is framed as a missing input rather than as a policy, which is both true and harder to argue with than a rule.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor names their own street or property, mentions a figure they have in mind, or asks what the fee would come to on a sale of a stated value.
I can give you the rate but not the sum, because the sum depends on a marketing price nobody here has set yet. Send me your name, an email and the address and a valuer will come out, free, and give you both numbers together.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never multiply a percentage by a price the visitor supplied, because the result reads as a quotation from the agency and will be produced later as one.
- Never suggest the rate could be lower for a particular property, since discounting is a conversation between a seller and a valuer and not something a chat window opens.
- Never imply the fee is payable when an offer is accepted, as that is the term most likely to be quoted back during a fall through.
- Never estimate what a property might be marketed at, even as a range, because a seller anchors to it and the appraisal then starts from a disagreement.
Questions
- Can it give a ballpark if we upload a price list?
- It can quote the rate off the list. It should not do the multiplication, because the price it would multiply by comes from the seller rather than from you, and a figure built on the seller's own guess still arrives with your name on it.
- We would rather not publish the percentage at all. Does the page still work?
- It works less well. Sellers shortlist on terms in the evening and an agency that will not state a rate gets dropped before the appraisal is offered. If the rate genuinely varies, publish the range and the reason it moves.
- What do we do about landlords who ask the same thing?
- Keep the lettings fee in its own document with its own vocabulary, monthly and percentage of rent rather than percentage of price. The citations underneath each answer will show you straight away when the assistant has reached into the wrong one.
Keep reading
- Everything for a estate agencyViewings, fees, referencing and deposit rules are answerable at any hour. Valuing a property or discussing an offer is not.
- Handling quotes and estimates in generalWhat has to be known before a number is possible, how the scoping step works, and how to answer without stonewalling or inventing a figure.
- Two customers, one procedure, and the stage after the agencyA tenant complains about a landlord's property, a seller about the agency itself. One written procedure, and a stage that sits outside it.
- The branch being open does not mean a viewing is availableBranch hours, viewing hours and the emergency line are three different timetables, and the one people want is rarely the office one.
- Where do I park is two questions and only one is about your officeA permit bay is a particular about the property, not a facility of the office. Two questions wearing the same six words.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.