Is the agents fee included in the total house sale price?

Hi there. In the UK agents fees are a commision paid on the value of the sale but paid by the vendor (person selling the house)

Yes you are quite right if you paid the agents fees ontop of the house price then the total amount paid would be used for calculating stamp duty.

I have come to this agreement when buying 2 flats. but what i did was paid the normal way via my solicitor for the property and paid the vendor directly to cover the agents fees.

(i only agreed to pay agents fees if the properties where left furnished)

Dont offer to pay agents fees unless you are getting something in return

I believe the agent's fee is included in the price - when I sold my house five years ago, i had a solicitor looking after everything, including paying the agent; he simply deducted the fee from the sale cheque from the buyer and his own fee before forwarding the remainder to me.

I'm not really sure if this answers the question properly, as I know two people who did just that - offered to pay the agents fee for the seller, so as to bring down the house price below a certain ceiling.

In the UK:

The seller is normally responsible for the agents fee and it is normally paid from the proceeds of the sale.

When a price is just above the stamp duty level (eg 255,000 or 510,000) a deal can normally be done so that the purchaser pays say 250,000 for the property and 5,000 for the fixtures and fittings thereby not paying the higher rate of stamp duty which is just calculated on the value of the property and not on the total transaction value.

But beware, the powers that be are aware of such deals and if you were to pay more for fixtures and fittings than they were deemed to be worth, trouble may come your way....

You will pay the agents fees to your solicitor, so you should be able to avoid paying stamp duty on them. Talk to your solicitor to be sure.

No you're not, the house price will be still £500k and the agents fee you will probably have to pay in cash.

in the US, all fees are stated in the

contract. Rarely do we list the specific

closing costs, but we do state

who is responsible for paying them

either the seller only, buyer only

or split.

NEVER consider paying a fee

as a favor.

They simply get a percentage of the gross selling price. Usually 6 to 7% in the US.

you need to agree the agent fee separately, I'd just negoitate with the seller to knock it off the purchase price..it would save you cash and trouble

Really this will depend on the agency

http://www.tioso.com/