You have decided to sell. If you have not, start with Should you sell?, because the best sale is sometimes the one you do not make. If you have, this is how to choose an agent to sell your property, and how to keep the sale working for you rather than only for the agent.
How to choose an agent to sell your property
Buyers arrive knowing values. They have searched online, seen the same sales you have, talked to a lender, and agreed between themselves what they will pay. Then they either meet a negotiator or they do not. The difference between what a buyer pays and what that buyer would have paid is where the agent earns their fee.
The agent’s pay and yours do not move in step. On a 2.5 per cent commission, used here as an example, an extra $50,000 on the price is worth $1,250 to the agent and $48,750 to you before tax. A quick sale at a lower price can pay the agent nearly as well as a long fight for a higher one. Most of what follows is about closing that gap.
The appointment you sign
Every state and territory sets its own rules for appointing an agent. The ones below are Queensland’s, as one example. The fair trading or consumer protection office in your state or territory sets out the rules where you live.
In Queensland the agent must discuss the types of appointment with you before you sign the appointment form (form 6 for a home), and should give you a copy. It is a contract, and worth reading as one.
- Open listing. You can list with several agents at once, and you pay commission only to the one who sells.
- Exclusive agency. You pay your agent a commission whoever sells the property, even if another agent or you find the buyer.
- Sole agency. You pay your agent a commission when the property sells, unless you sell it yourself.
A sole or exclusive appointment can run for 90 days at most. If the term is longer than 60 days, either side can end it with 30 days’ written notice, though it must run at least 60 days. A shorter first term, with a reappointment if the work is good, tends to keep an agent keen. When a sole or exclusive appointment ends, it can carry on as an open listing if you agree on the form.
There is no official commission rate. It is negotiated with you and written into the appointment you both sign. So the time to settle it, and everything tied to it, is before you sign. If the agent gives you a price estimate, they must back it with a comparative market analysis: at least three similar homes sold within 5 kilometres in the last six months, or, if three cannot be found, written advice explaining how they reached the figure. Elsewhere the details change. New South Wales sets no term and gives you one business day after signing to change your mind; Queensland and Victoria give none by law. South Australia allows 90 days, extendable once to 180, and Tasmania 120.
Seven protections, in writing
These come from years of watching sales go well and badly. Any seller can raise them with any agent, and how an agent answers tells you a great deal.
- A price range. The least and the most the agent expects, in writing, and what happens to the commission if the sale falls below the least. An agent who quotes high to win your listing, then talks you down, is easier to spot when the range is on paper.
- The commission. Agreed and written before you sign, including any lower figure for poor effort.
- Other agents welcome. A share of the commission offered to any agent who brings a buyer. If the agent has buyers waiting, it costs them nothing. If they do not, your home is not cut off from the rest of the market.
- Ways to end it. At once if the agent proposes a price below the range they first gave you, and for poor work after a short time, say seven days, to put it right. In Queensland, on a term longer than 60 days the law keeps the appointment in force for at least 60 days, which is one more reason to start with a shorter term. A seller can also have a day to change their mind written into the appointment.
- Buyers you already know. No commission on a buyer you named in writing before you signed, if that buyer goes on to settle.
- Clients to ring. At least five, past or present, to ring yourself with two questions: what price did the agent first put on it, and what did the property sell for?
- Your own conditions. Anything else you want, added in writing within a day or two, with the right to walk away without penalty if the agent will not accept it.
Whether an agent will put their promises in writing tells you something either way.
Questions for the interview
- Teach me something about negotiation. How an agent answers shows how they would negotiate for you.
- What marketing does this property need, and what would you leave out? A good agent spends your money where it changes the price.
- Is there anything I should fix before we list? Sometimes $20,000 well spent lifts the price by more; sometimes it is wasted. An agent with an eye for building work will tell you which, and why.
- How do you handle a buyer who comes in with a figure already agreed with their lender?
- If a building inspection finds a problem, who negotiates it, and how?
Example only. A tired rental needs paint, floor coverings and a new kitchen bench, quoted at $20,000. The agent’s comparative sales point to $50,000 more once done. If the evidence holds, you are $30,000 ahead before tax and the cost of holding while the work is done; if it does not, you have spent $20,000 to stand still, which is why the evidence comes before the spending.
What a good negotiator does
When my family sold after Dad died, I watched one of the best negotiators I’ve come across. At open homes he let buyers walk through on their own. “You don’t need me to tell you where the kitchen is,” he would say, “and if you’re not interested, you won’t hear from me.” Then he waited outside. People relaxed, talked honestly between themselves, and came back with real questions when they were interested.
On one sale the building inspection found an old leak from an ensuite that had damaged a wall, and the contract was subject to a satisfactory report. My brother wanted me to send the family’s builder, but the agent said to hold off because he was negotiating. Within a day the buyers went unconditional. He had put it to them plainly: a couple of thousand dollars of work, against losing the home they loved, with the yard and the pool, in a rising market where weeks of searching could cost them far more. Without being pushy, he worked for us, treated the buyer fairly, and looked for the outcome both sides could live with.
That is the job: working out what each buyer wants, and finding the price and terms that get them there. Clients I have shared this with have since told me the same about agents who work this way.
Warning signs
- Praise before you sign, and criticism after. A high quote that wins the listing can be followed by talk of a cooling market and a lower price.
- Buyers kept waiting. Calls and emails left unanswered lose the very people you need.
- Your enquiries steered to other listings. Your marketing should sell your property, not someone else’s.
- Your reasons for selling shared with buyers. Illness, money or a separation in the wrong hands costs you at the negotiating table.
There is a simple way to test an agent before you appoint them. A friend can ring about one of their listings with two questions: why is the owner selling, and what is the least they will take? How the agent answers is how they will speak about yours.
Before you list
The checkup always comes first: is selling the best you could be doing, or only the most obvious? If it is the best, a sale handled well protects years of what the property made for you, and I would rather you saw holding and selling side by side, in your own numbers, before an agent sees either. The first conversation costs nothing.
Nicholas Lockhart
This page reflects the law as at 14 October 2026.
Sources: Queensland Government, Appointing a real estate sales agent (updated 19 July 2024); Queensland Government, Charging commission for selling and letting (updated 20 October 2020); NSW Government, Agency agreements for the sale of property in NSW (updated 8 July 2026); Consumer Affairs Victoria, Selling property with or without an agent (updated 5 May 2021); SA Government, Hiring a professional for house and land sales (updated 9 June 2026); Property Agents and Land Transactions Act 2016 (Tas), section 44.