Agency fees: seller, this nice free gesture that you can grant to your buyer
If you sign a mandate to sell with a real estate agent, insist that the seller pay the fees. Counterintuitively, you will in fact save several hundred euros on its transaction … without it costing you a single penny! This is the right advice to give to all future sellers. Why this advice? Because in this way, you limit your buyer’s notary fees to the tune of several hundred euros. We will explain it to you in detail.
When you offer a property for sale to a real estate agency, you sign a sales mandate. You decide at this point who, between the seller and the buyer, will be the “payer” of the estate agent’s fees. In reality, this choice has no impact on the net price you receive. Small demonstration. Imagine the sale of a house, paid at a net selling price (excluding agency fees) of 200,000 euros. It is agreed, for this transaction, that the real estate agency receives 5% fees during the sale, or 10,000 euros in this example.
- In case number 1: the seller pays the agency fee. In the window, the property will therefore be offered to the buyer at a selling price “agency fees included” of 210,000. The buyer will therefore pay 210,000 euros to the seller, who will then pay 10,000 euros in commission from the agency.
- In case number 2: the buyer pays the agency’s fees. In reality, in this situation, he will pay two checks: the first for 200,000 euros to the seller. And a second of 10,000 euros payable to the real estate agency.
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You will understand, in reality, “the choice does not vary either the price paid by the buyer, nor the amount received by the seller”, confirms Henry Buzy-Cazaux, president of the Institute of management of real estate services . On the other hand, this choice will influence the transfer rights, commonly called “notary fees”, which will have to be paid later by the buyer. In case number 1, the buyer will thus see the transfer rights calculated on a base of 210,000 euros. In case number 2, they will be calculated on a base of 200,000.
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Several hundred euros in potential savings
As we repeat, however, this small detail will however have consequences later … For Capital, the real estate agency Welmo has also carried out some simple simulations to describe the situation. To do this, it adopted the hypothesis of a transaction for a net seller amount of 500,000 euros, 4.8% agency commission, and 7% “notary fees”.
In the example above, we realize that for the acquirer, paying the agency commission is a good deal. It saves 1,800 euros in notary fees, largely made up of transfer taxes.
>> Read also – Real estate: two (legal) tips to reduce your notary fees
Sometimes reluctant agencies
However, we prefer to warn you: even if it is objectively preferable to pass the agency fees on the buyer’s side, professionals do not always like this arrangement. “We proceed that this system complicates the procedures”, justifies for example Thomas Venturini, the co-founder of Liberkeys. The seller, for example, has to make two different payments when paying for the real estate agent’s fees. In addition, “the question of transfer rights is not the main concern of sellers,” said Thomas Venturini. “To really lower the costs of the transaction, the best advisers should rather compare the differences in commissions between agencies, and favor exclusive mandates with them, which are more effective in selling a property at the right price,” he believes. . Proof disputed by our expert Henry Buzy-Cazaux. “I don’t agree that the difference is negligible. A few hundred euros is not nothing, even on a high transaction amount! ”
Sometimes real estate agencies also have another less possible interest in refusing payment of the fees by the purchaser. And this argument is purely marketing.
- If the agency commissions are the responsibility of the purchaser: the advertisement must indeed present the part including tax of the fees payable, as a percentage of the net seller price;
- If the commission is payable by the seller: the selling price alone, excluding fees, must be mentioned.
However, the subject is sensitive among many professionals, already accused of practicing too high commissions… “Certain agencies thus prefer not to put forward the amount of their commissions”, ironically Nicolas Gay, the founder of Welmo. “It would be better to have the courage to say transparently to the purchaser that upon arrival, the price of the property will be the same, regardless of who pays the commission,” pleads Henry Buzy-Cazaux.
>> Our complete buyer’s guide. Financing comment of your real estate project? Choose between new and old? A house or an apartment?
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