Estate Agent Fees in London (How To Keep Those Insane Fees At Bay)

So what’s a cheaper (and effective) solution to beat London estate agency fees?

So the reason I wanted to touch on the subject of loopy estate agency fees in London, is because many people still aren’t aware of Strike.co.uk, one of UK’s largest online estate agents. And many of those that are familiar with them, don’t realise that they now operate in London (up until recently, they only operated in the north of England).

If you haven’t heard of Strike, think Purplebricks & Yopa.

If you haven’t heard of either of them, well, I don’t know what to tell you. How is life under a rock?

Fortunately, all is not lost, because you can catch up on my guide to online estate agents. If you’re genuinely completely oblivious to the world of online estate agents (and why they’ve become insanely popular among UK home-sellers), I highly encourage you to read my guide. There’s a whole new world out there. Now, I’m not saying it will be a perfect fit for you, but it just might be.

What’s unique about Strike is that their house selling service is absolutely free.

Yes, free.

Even in London (which many didn’t think would ever happen).

And no, there isn’t a catch or gimmick.

I’m not going to cut the full promo right now, because I’ve already done that in my Strike overview blog post. But here are the key features of their service:

Estate Agent	Rating	Duration	Includes / Notes	Price
Strike (formerly Housesimple)	Rating 4.6 TrustPilot Reviews	Duration 6 months	Includes / Notes No fee package Key features Rightmove listing Zoopla listing Photograghs Floorplan Negotiation For sale sign In-person valuation 13 weeks Sole Agency contract	Price Free Free	Visit WebsiteBook Free In-Person Valuation

Just to clarify once again, my only intention is to make you aware of the fact that Strike’s free house selling service is now available in London (and the entirety of England). I have no idea if you’re open to using an Online Estate Agent or not, but if you are, they’d certainly be a good option to explore. At the time of writing this blog post, their TrustPilot profile has over 18,000 reviews. Make of that what you will.

Of course, there are plenty of other online agents that will offer the same, or at least similar, services to Strike. But none of them are as reputable and free. However, I would never discourage anyone from checking out the competition to weigh up your options. I’ve listed the top rated online estate agents here.

High-street Estate Agency fees in London

This article on propertyindustryeye.com shows a “league table” of the biggest UK Estate Agents. I have grabbed a few of the agents (many of which you’ll be aware of, because they’re literally scattered on every street corner in London) to highlight what their fees are.

side note, it was quite concerning and extremely frustrating to discover that most estate agents don’t disclose their sales fees on their website, because, I quote, “costs will vary depending on the value of your property and its location”.

Urgh, spare me! Sounds like BS. We all know they could list their prices if they really wanted to. Funny enough, they seem to be more than happy to flaunt their letting service fees. Anyways…

I ended up using getagent.co.uk to collect their average fee across all their branches around the country, which of course, won’t necessarily reflect their London prices.

To be honest, I think it’s safe to assume that most agents in London will charge roughly the same fees (before and after negotiating).

The presumption is that you understand the difference between online estate agents and high-street agents in practical terms, so this is purely to bring home the fact that using Strike’s free service is remarkably alluring.

Is Strike REALLY an effective solution to selling your house in London (even though their service is free)?

I believe so.

I believe Strike, like many of the other online estate agents that include Rightmove and Zoopla listings with their packages, are extremely effective. That’s simply because that’s where and how most estate agents, including traditional high-street estate agents, generate a bulk of their enquiries.

Basically, if Strike’s free service didn’t include Rightmove and Zoopla listings with their package, we wouldn’t be having this conversion today, because I wouldn’t be able to consider them as an effective solution. To maximise the chances of an effective sale house, advertising on the two biggest UK property portals is an absolute must!

There are other free methods of marketing property for sale [which don’t include Rightmove & Zoopla listings], but none quite as effective in my opinion.

If you’re baffled by why and how Strike are able to offer their service for free, while the likes of Purplebricks and Yopa are offering very similar service for approx £1000, I explain all in my Strike.co.uk review. In short, it’s not a scam.

Other fees to pay attention to (and how to also keep them at bay)

Estate agents, both online and high-street, make a large portion of their revenue by upselling additional services (e.g. conveyancing) required to complete a house sale. Generally speaking, they won’t offer you a great deal on those services because they markup the prices, but arguably, they will provide convenience, since you can order everything from the same place.

Below is a list of services you may need to budget for beyond estate agency fees. These are the services you’ll likely be offered by your agent as an “add-on”. I’ve also provided alternative outlets providing the same services, which are likely to offer you significantly better rates.

For more details, you can jump over to my in-depth blog post on the costs of selling a house (and how to keep them down).

Happy selling xoxo