Hello

Should I pay to advertise my house?

Many of my clients ask me about the cost of advertising their house. They question whether it is fair for a real estate agency to charge and if so, what is a reasonable amount. To answer that question, I would say that yes, it is fair that you pay to advertise your own house. However, I’d preface it by saying within reason. After all the most common way agents find most of their listings is from the advertising of their current listings. You will notice that when you advertise your home that the agency has their brand all over every advertisement. 

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When I first started as a real estate agent just over 20 years ago, you could do a full advertising program for a house and receive change from $1,500. Now the same program would cost you between $5,000 and $8,000 depending on where the house is located. (The internet portals charge different amounts depending on the area and type of advertisement) So certainly the costs of selling a house have gone up over and above the cost of normal inflation.

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Some people would ask, “isn’t it the agent’s job to find buyers and aren’t I paying a commission for the service?” It is a fair point, but I would suggest that a good agent would be the best at negotiating a great price and you should make sure that that agent has the best chance to meet the highest number of buyers possible.

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I probably sound like I am a little too far on the agent’s side here but bear with me, it’s not a one-way street. If you pay for the advertising the agent owes it to you to put their systems in place to add to the marketing. That is their database of current buyers. That means to physically contact a large group of buyers that may be potentially interested in your house. You can often see how hard an agent is prepared to work for you by having an invitation only open house or 2 prior to the advertising starting.

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Agents in general charge you the cost that their suppliers charge them, after all they are legally obligated to do this. However, there are a couple of issues that I sometimes have with the costs of the advertising. Most agencies charge an administration fee for the cost of placing the advertisements. I’m not saying that this is completely unfair but the costs depending on the agency can vary from anywhere between $250 to $1,700. It is hard to justify that much difference between agencies. Especially considering as previously mentioned the advertising for your house often helps the agent get their next property to sell.

The other issue that I sometimes have is the price that an auctioneer charges. Sometimes if the agent that lists your house to sell is an auctioneer, he/she will not charge for the auction call, but I’ve had experiences where the auctioneer wants up to $1,800 for the service. I’m not saying one might not be better that the other but again that is a massive difference and the cost of an auctioneer from my experience doesn’t always reflect on the ability of the auctioneer.

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In summary, I would say that selling a house is a joint venture and paying for a reasonable amount of advertising is fair. It is also fair to have high expectations of the agent to work hard on your house and not just rely on the advertising to find a buyer.