Playbook, estate agency
Seller fees and landlord fees, kept in separate lanes
What do you charge means two entirely different things on an agency site, and the assistant has no way of knowing which one it has been asked unless the material tells it. A seller is asking about a commission percentage, a sole agency term and what happens if they withdraw. A landlord is asking what separates tenant find from full management. Answer either one with the other's document and the reply is not slightly off, it is about somebody else's business entirely.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for pricing questions holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- One question has two audiences behind it, so the first job of the reply is to establish which one it is talking to rather than to give a number.
- The seller's fee question is really about the terms attached to the fee, the tie in, the notice, the withdrawal position, which is where agents differ and where sellers actually compare.
- The landlord's fee question is about the boundary between service tiers, so the useful material is what each tier includes rather than what each tier costs.
- Both audiences are usually comparing several agents in one evening, which makes an unanswered fee question an immediate loss rather than a delayed one.
How it arrives
- what fees do you charge sellers
- is your commission plus vat
- what is the tie in period on a sole agency agreement
- what does your landlord management fee cover
- what is the difference between tenant find and full management
- do you charge if the property does not sell
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Seller fees and the terms attached to them | Your commission basis, whether it is sole or multiple agency, the tie in period, the notice required to withdraw, and how withdrawal or abortive fees work. Sellers compare on these terms and rarely get a straight answer before an appraisal. |
|---|---|
| Landlord service tiers, listed side by side | Tenant find, rent collection and full management, with what each includes: inspections, contractor instruction, arrears chasing, renewal handling, compliance certificates. The difference between the tiers is where every landlord question comes from. |
| Additional charges outside the headline fee | Marketing packages, professional photography, energy certificates, inventory, check in and check out, renewal fees, and anything charged at the end of a tenancy. These are what a client did not budget for and they belong in the same document as the fee. |
| What is included in your marketing as standard | Portals, photography, floorplan, signage, accompanied viewings, and anything you charge extra for. Sellers weighing two agents are usually comparing this against the commission difference without being told what is in either. |
The reply
That depends on whether you are selling or letting, since the two are priced completely differently. On the sales side the commission basis, the sole agency term and the notice period are all on the seller fees page, along with what happens if you withdraw. On the lettings side the fee depends on which service level you want, and the tenant find, rent collection and full management tiers are set out with what each one includes. Tell me which applies and I will point you at the right page.
It refuses to guess at the audience, which is the only correct opening move for this question on this kind of site. Naming the specific terms sellers compare on signals that the agency publishes them, which is itself a differentiator. For landlords it points at the inclusions rather than the price, because the tier boundary is the actual question.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor asks what the fee would be on their own property, or starts describing the property or portfolio in order to get a figure.
Our published fees are on the site, but what it works out at for your property is a conversation with a valuer or the lettings manager rather than something I should put a number on. Leave your name, email and whether you are selling or letting and the right person will call you.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never quote a seller fee to somebody who turns out to be a landlord, or the reverse.
- Never say a commission rate is negotiable, or suggest a discount.
- Never state the fee on a specific property, or apply a percentage to a value the visitor mentioned.
- Never describe a service tier as including something that sits in the tier above it.
Questions
- How do we stop it mixing up sellers and landlords?
- In the material rather than in the configuration. Keep the seller fees and the landlord service tiers as clearly separate documents with distinct vocabulary, and the citations on each answer will show you immediately when the assistant has reached into the wrong set.
- Should we publish the commission at all?
- That is a commercial decision, but sellers comparing agents in the evening are comparing terms as much as percentages. Publishing the tie in, the notice period and the withdrawal position is valuable even where the rate itself stays for the appraisal.
- What about the fees a landlord meets at the end of a tenancy?
- Index them in the same document as the tier. Renewal fees, check out and any deduction handling charge are the ones landlords say they were not told about, and an assistant that names them up front costs you nothing and prevents an argument.
Keep reading
- Everything for a estate agencyViewings, fees, referencing and deposit rules are answerable at any hour. Valuing a property or discussing an offer is not.
- Handling pricing questions in generalPublished price versus the price for this buyer. Bands, ranges and from pricing, and why a firm number for unscoped work is the damaging failure.
- Deposit questions where the wrong answer is a compliance problemTwo different payments, two different rules and one word. What the assistant explains about protection, deductions and what is refundable.
- Access questions about a property, answered before the appointmentFloors, lifts, thresholds and parking. Why nobody should have to attend a viewing to discover a property does not work for them.
- What happens when somebody types their own addressThe moment an address appears, the answer belongs to a valuer. Handover here is a routing problem across four audiences and one widget.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.