Agents Costs? Does this sound reasonable?

[*Beema*]

I am selling my investment property, and my agents has quoted me the following for selling the house:

$2500 for all the advertising, which includes a sign board out the front (6 foot x 4 foot) $245, Major state Newspaper Sat/Sun for three weeks ($470 each week), Flyers to hand out for those who visit $210 for 100, incl full colour A4 photos and house plan, layout and printing), we also got "House of the Week" full page add last week in another newspaper for $350, and Real Estate.com $250.

If we sell earlier we don't pay for the other week or two in the Newspaper.

Plus

1.7% for selling

Does this sound reasonable? I have never sold a house before and this is the house I built when I first got a FT job permeanent job straight out of uni so a little bit sad to be selling

[~Kim~]

Our advertising fees were $2000 for all that, but we live in a country town too where the newspaper costs aren't very high.
1.7% sounds great though. Generally they are tiered but average we found was 3% or so.

[FabFiona]

I think they are about right. We paid around $2400 for a similar advertising package. In hindsight I would have bought a cheaper one, but too late now.

I can't remember exactly but I think our agents commission was around 2.5%

[Antheia]

Hmm that sounds really strange to me. When we sold our house in December last year the commission was 2% and that included all advertising, sign etc...

[nickle730]

Hmm that sounds really strange to me. When we sold our house in December last year the commission was 2% and that included all advertising, sign etc...

On a home which sells for $500K that 0.3% difference in commission is equal to $1500. Beema would pay $2500 for advertising but $1500 less in commission (assuming the house sold for $500K and the entire advertising budget was used) so the agent's offer is similar to yours Antheia.

Having said that, Beema I reckon the advertising budget is too generous. Most people look on the net these days if they are buying property. If you are in an area where the market moves quickly I would be tempted to skip the state newspapers, pay for the sign, the net and the local paper as well as the agents window (which should be free!). You need the flyers as well so that your buyer can take home pictures to remind themselves how lovely your house is and how they would like to pay TWICE the price you are hoping for!!

The commission sound good at 1.7%.... Good luck!!

[FabFiona]

Most people look on the net these days if they are buying property. If you are in an area where the market moves quickly I would be tempted to skip the state newspapers, pay for the sign, the net and the local paper as well as the agents window (which should be free!). You need the flyers as well so that your buyer can take home pictures to remind themselves how lovely your house is and how they would like to pay TWICE the price you are hoping for!!

Agreed. This is the part that I wished I'd skipped but bubs was with me when I was doing the paperwork so I wasn't really paying attention! Oooppsss!

[Megan]

We paid 2.6% commission which included all of our advertising, so that sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

[*Beema*]

Thankyou for all of your feedback, it is really interesting to know where our "offer" sits.

She only just recently sold a property in the same suburb similar size but town house and had a lot of people wanting a house the same size, there is a lot of demand, that sold in 1 week If we are very lucky and sell quicker and don't use the newpaper advertising we will save $470 each week we don't.

I think what I might get done is when we open, that the agent asks where people found out about the property, to gage whether the newpaper advertising is worth it. She "said" it went hand in hand with the Internet as a lot of people look at the paper then go to the net or those who don't use the net use the paper, and people tend to take the paper with them....

The agent doesn't have a window she is a smaller operator

[krysalyss]

I guess it depends on how much the property will sell for. We recently sold land (under $100K) and the commission was 4.75% but it included all advertising. That is about $2000 cheaper than the deal you have been offered at the price we sold it for. But your deal may work out better if the selling price is a lot higher.

[Mum2SweetCs]

Make sure the 1.7% INCLUDES GST

We got done when we sold our property thinking we got a good deal but the % quoted did not include GST =(

[*Beema*]

It does include the GST

With the advertising included it would work out to be about 2%

[deletedit]

It varies something severe, depending on where you are and what agent you use. Some have a fixed price selling %, others charge for advertising separately. Careful that you don't have to pay advertising upfront and then get stuck with a useless agent - the better deals are ones where there is no charge at all if you don't sell, so you can switch agents after the exclusive period if you want to. Not really an issue if you're in a 'hot' market where houses sell fast, of course ...

I've had my house advertised with an agent for 6 months - no sale, but had it sold it would have cost me $4500 (on a $85,000 house). Had it listed privately now for about 2 months, cost of $0, and I'm hoping for a bite this weekend as some quite serious buyers are coming. Turns out it costs $350 plus $300 to do searches and draw up a contract, and that is split between buyers and sellers.

Remember you also have to pay conveyancing, any outstanding rates/water, and bank break fees.

Trading in houses is expensive.