Why is your fee not on your website?

The reason there is no number here

A three bedroom house that is tidy, empty and straightforward to sell is not the same job as a tenanted cross lease that needs repairs organised, trades booked, a staging plan and a longer campaign. One is a handful of decisions and the other is weeks of coordination.

If both carried the same published fee, one of the two would be priced wrong. So we work the fee out at the appraisal, against what the job actually is for your property, and then it is written into the agency agreement before the campaign starts. From that point it is fixed and in writing, before you have committed to anything.

That is a choice about how to quote, not a claim about the number. We are not saying the fee is low or high. We are saying it is worked out on your property rather than taken off a page.

What you are entitled to, from any agency

Whoever you are talking to, you should have all of this before you sign anything:

• The fee in writing, not described out loud.
• An explanation of how it is calculated, including GST on top and any fixed administration or transaction charge.
• A marketing spend agreed in writing before a dollar is spent, itemised so you can see what each part is.
• The right to negotiate all of it, because the fee and the marketing are terms of the agreement between you and the agency, and nothing is set until it is written in.

What is in writing before you sign

Under section 126 of the Real Estate Agents Act 2008 an agency has no entitlement to commission or expenses unless there is a written agency agreement signed by you and the agent, so the fee and the marketing schedule are written down before you sign either way. You can take both away, read them, and come back with questions.

That is also the point at which the terms are still terms. The fee, the marketing schedule, the length of the term and the period afterwards on an introduced buyer are all part of the same document, and they are settled together rather than one at a time.