Fees
3 Answers:
1
Most agents will negotiate their fees, except the discounters. The facts are that when you use a 'full commission' agent they should work in with other companies so that in theory you have got the possibility of 80% of all the agents in NZ to sell your property. For example if a vendor sold their property in Christchurch and asked me to find them a property in Auckland I would find one that matched their criteria and contact the 'full commission' agent in Auckland to work in. With the discount companies you may only have 1 agent selling your property and most full commission agents will not bother working in as they will get little in commission from the sale.
My personal experience is that especially in bad times a discount property may drop in price more than a full commission property as not as many buyers will view it as some buyers use their full commission agent to recommend properties to see. Also if you are not paying as much in commission buyers see it that they can make lower offers. I did have an owner emailing me if I any of my buyers were interested in buying his property, but I explained to him what I said above. He dropped in price, in a good market, more than our total commission would have been. He finally sold, but I do not think he was happy with the final outcome.
This is my opinion and you should make up your own mind.
