Perth selling costs are the part of a sale that surprises people, because the agent’s commission is the number everyone discusses and it is only one line on the final statement.
The rest arrive at settlement: fees, disbursements, adjustments and charges that get deducted from the price before the money reaches you. Knowing them in advance changes how you price the property and how you plan the next purchase.
The Perth selling costs you will definitely pay
Start with the agent’s fee. It is usually calculated as a percentage of the sale price, sometimes with a marketing component on top, and it is negotiable. What matters more than the headline rate is what the fee includes and whether the agent can justify it with a real marketing plan rather than a listing on the major portals.
Marketing is the second cost. Professional photography, floor plans, signboards, portal upgrades and copywriting all come out of your budget, and they vary enormously between agents. Some bundle them into the commission, some invoice them separately. Ask for the number in writing before you sign the agency agreement.
Conveyancing or settlement fees cover the legal transfer of title. This is not a place to economise, because a mistake at settlement is expensive to fix. Get a fixed quote rather than an estimate, and ask what the quote excludes.
The costs people forget
- Search fees and title searches paid as disbursements by the settlement agent.
- Council and water rates, adjusted so you pay only the portion of the period you owned the property.
- Land tax, if the property is liable and the assessment falls due around the sale.
- Any outstanding strata levies or special levies, which are adjusted at settlement.
- Mortgage discharge fees from your lender, which vary and are worth checking early.
- Repairs and presentation costs, from a handyman to a pre-sale building report.
The discharge fee is the one most sellers overlook. If you have a fixed-rate loan, there may also be a break cost, and that can be substantial. Call your lender before you list rather than after you accept an offer.
Where the negotiation actually sits
Commission is negotiable, and so is marketing. What is not negotiable is the value of an agent who prices the property correctly and manages the campaign well. A cheap fee on a badly priced listing costs more than a fair fee on a good one.
The other lever is preparation. Money spent on presentation, minor repairs and a tidy garden usually returns more than the same money spent on a fee discount, because it lifts the price the market is willing to pay rather than trimming the cost of achieving it.
Think about timing too. Selling and buying in the same market means the costs on both sides interact, and a bridging arrangement may be part of the plan. Work out the net figure you need before you commit to your next purchase, not after.
For the preparation side, our guide to renovating before selling in Perth covers where the money is well spent, and our piece on auction versus private treaty explains how the method changes your cost profile.
One more number worth checking is the shortfall risk. If your sale price lands below what you owe plus the costs of selling, you need to know that before the campaign starts rather than at settlement. A settlement agent can give you an indicative payout figure including discharge fees and adjustments, and that figure is what your net proceeds actually rest on.
Keep the paperwork together as you go. Invoices for marketing, repairs and styling, plus the agency agreement and the settlement statement, are all relevant at tax time if the property was an investment, and they are considerably harder to assemble a year later.
Thinking of selling? Smart Realty offers free appraisals at competitive rates and will set out the full cost picture before you commit. If you are keeping the property as a rental instead, request a free rental appraisal.