Pick a number, any number....

Rob agreed 100% - what you have to remember is that what happens to one sector of the market can have an effect on another aspèct of the market. Thus if there is a general lack of confidence in the housing market it can mean that nobody (I am talking extremes) would be willing to lend money to a potential buyer - if prices fall too far too fast every lender will start thinking twice about lending to anybody at all - it is always a double edged sword - e.g. lets say prices are 40% of whet they were 12 mothhs prior - 200,000 in 2007 and now 80,000, if nobody is willing to lend the money to buy it then it could be 10,000€ - its a balancing act and things are finely balanced as we speak.

Roy if the house is what you want deal via the agent with the lower price not that you weill pay the 123 anyway - the UK agent is only shootoing themselves in the foot anyway by trying to get 130 when its offered lower elsewhere,

It seems assumptions rule the world!! There are several potential issues here. 

One is that many owners do not advise Agents when they reduce their prices as they lose track of who they have listed with and it may not be the agent seeking commission of 50k, it is things like this that give all agents a really bad name, along the same lines of solicitors paying agents for clients, a load of old tosh, its quite illegal and I have never known of a case in reality, only urban myths.

The second is that english and spanish agents in rural areas often work differently. A lot of spanish agents in Andalucia still operate the old system of charging the buyer commission as well as the seller, and that MAY account for the price differential. People are so quick to condemn Agents based on little evidence.............just conclusions jumped to.  I´m not defending all agents but there are some good ones and many of those left do fall in to that category in my experience.

Jewel, I completely agree. I think there are some very good and honest agents around and I certainly don't want to criticise all agents. As with many things in life however, its always the few who spoil things for the majority.

In this case the UK agent claims to know the owner well, so therefore should know the correct and current price. When I raised the query about the difference in price, I would have expected them to contact the owner and verify the price to check if there had been a price reduction - I am certain they didn't do this and have simply confirmed that their price of 130k is the correct one. The Spanish agent assures me he has the correct price at 123k which includes his commission - he does not charge the buyer. He also assures me the owner is prepared to negotiate on the 123k. Something doesn't add up here and I am not being told the truth. I am therefore left with the following conclusion:

1. The UK agent is simply loading the price in the hope that someone will come along a pay the inflated price, or

2. The UK agent is not dealing direct with the owner, despite their claims that they know the owner well, and

3. The UK agent is in fact dealing through another Spainish agent or 'corredor' and is adding their commission on top of the sales price obtainable locally.

There is nothing wrong with this per say but I do not like being lied to. If the UK agent relies on charging a higher price to earn their commssion then they should make that clear. If they had said, "yes we do charge a little more to cover our commission", I might have been prepared to pay a little extra to know that I am dealing with a fellow Brit who is going to work for me, solve my language/translation problems and provide some reassurance to someone buying in a foreign country for the first time. I am sure there are buyers who would pay a little more for that reassurance - GIVEN THE CHOICE. But by lying to me all they have done is made me mistrust them and perpetuate the 'all agents are crooks' argument. As Smiley said, they are just shooting themselves in the foot.

But what really concerns me is that there are unsuspecting buyers out there who will not have done their homework and will end up paying the inflated price for no reason. I will certainly not be paying the inflated price, or the lower one for that matter! but my reason for bringing this to the attention of this forum is I would like to see a much more open and transparent market place. That would surely be good for all, buyers, sellers and agents alike. People need to know what is going on and where they might be ripped off. If they know all the facts and go in with their eyes open and are still prepared to pay a higher price, then fair enough.

This is precisely why, when I have sold property here in the past, I have told all the agents listing it at what price they are to market it. If the one who charges a low commission sells it, I gain. If the one charging higher commission sells it, they gain. But either way, the buyer doesn't get spooked by the wildly varying prices they see my property advertised at since everyone has it at the same price. Any agent who wants to charge exorbitant (more than 5%) commission, or who wants to advertise it at a higher price than agreed, doesn't get a look in.

But then, I'm a model vendor, and there's a lot of idiots out there! (and they're not ALL estate agents)

I agree there should be more regulation in the industry here. This never really seems to be an issue in the UK, where all agents seem to know the correct price to market a property, and there's little variation in valuations or fees.