Remainder of advertising fee

[giraffez]

Just want to find out, when you sell a property, you agree on the commission and advertising fee for the agent.

If the property is sold before the entirety of the advertising fee is used up, does the agent give the remainder back?

 

[wylie]

When we have sold, we have paid for individual newspaper or net advertising, all detailed, not a quoted bulk figure.

 

[giraffez]

I have been asked to pay a fixed figure up front. And every week they send me a summary of how much has been used.

 

[wylie]

Then I'm sure you will be refunded what is not used .

 

[pennyk]

if it was a fixed figure, then you may be required to pay for all, regardless of what was used.
We've just sold our PPOR. it was a fixed advertising cost of around $650, which was obviously subsidised. I expect that we will need to pay that full amount despite it selling in less than a week.
Even though it sold quickly, most of the items included in the amount were already done, eg photos, floor plan etc.
After having another property (different agent) on the market for several months, where the advertising fees were over $10 000, and the property still hasnt sold... we're more than happy to pay the full amount for this one,

 

[Scott No Mates]

Advertising costs are totally dependent upon what has been agreed, if you are paying 100% of advertising costs, then they have to account to the vendor on how they are spending the money. If they have spent all of the agreed funds then they will have to rattle the cage again, if they haven't spent all of it then they should return the unspent proportion.

 

[RedCat]

And then you get to pay for the ad in the paper with a huge logo and slash over it saying "SOLD" so the RE agent can attract more vendors. Can't imagine too many vendors agreeing to pay for this one if they had a choice!

 

[giraffez]

Has anyone actually got the unspent portion of the advertising cost back ?

 

[wylie]

When we had our place on the market, we would be called, and discuss what would be spent for the coming weekend paper (or local mid-week paper).

I think we paid at the end, but there was no "budget" as such. We agreed to advertise in the "local rag" (free paper) and reviewed it each week as the inspections progressed. If you are concerned, why not tell your agent that you would like to agree to each advertisement as and when they feel it is necessary.

 

[giraffez]

Ok thanks I guess it will be 50/50 getting money back

 

[wobbycarly]

We signed a contract (to sell) on Monday night. We had agreed to another 4 weeks advertising. Our agent agreed that we'd only be charged for the ads actually used, and as our selling contract states that the REA gets paid on sale, it'll come out in the wash when we settle.