Marketing costs: what a Queensland seller pays, sold or not

In this article

Written by

Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

About Kooky and Shaka →

Most of what a seller pays an agent depends on a result. Commission is tied to a sale, and the argument about when it is earned has its own case law. Marketing money works differently. The photographer has been to the house, the listing has gone live on the portals and the signboard is in the front garden well before anyone knows whether a buyer will turn up. Those bills exist whether or not a contract is ever signed.

That is why the marketing section of an agent's appointment deserves a slower read than it usually gets at the kitchen table. In Queensland the appointment is a prescribed document, the Property Occupations Form 6, and the Property Occupations Act 2014 sets what it has to say about expenses, when payments fall due and what the agent receives back from suppliers. A second law, the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014, governs what happens to marketing money handed over in advance. This guide follows the marketing dollar through both: what must be written down, what an agent can recover, how the three common payment arrangements differ, where GST sits, what is still owed if the home does not sell, and how to question an account.

Agents Financial Administration Act 2014, sections 16 and 23, version in force from 1 March 2023; QCAT, consumers, traders and businesses page, updated 28 July 2026.

Two separate lines on the same form

Commission and marketing expenses are agreed in the same document, on the same day, and they are often discussed in the same breath. They are still two different promises.

Commission is the agent's reward for the service of selling. Marketing expenses are costs the agent incurs on the seller's behalf with third parties, or with the agency's own in-house team, to bring buyers to the property. The Office of Fair Trading, on its Queensland Government page about commissions, tells sellers to factor in other fees such as advertising, and notes that these are usually not part of the commission. Only one of the two lines depends on a sale.

A seller comparing two agents is therefore comparing at least four things: the commission, the marketing budget, the timing of each, and what happens to the marketing budget if there is no sale.

What the appointment has to say about money

An agent cannot act for a seller at all without a written appointment. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance for the industry, last updated on 8 February 2024, puts it in one line.

It reads: "you can't provide a property agent service for a client until they appoint you by a written agreement."

For a home, that agreement is the Form 6. The same guidance says the appointment must set out the services to be provided, any limits or conditions on them, the commission, fees and expenses the client will pay, and the due date for each payment.

The detail sits in section 104 of the Property Occupations Act 2014, headed "General content of appointment" in the version of the Act current as at 1 August 2025. A commentary on the Form 6 published by the REIQ and written by Emily Holzberger, a solicitor at Carter Newell Lawyers (dated 28 May 2024), walks through the section paragraph by paragraph. The money items are these.

The same commentary lists the mistakes its author sees most often on completed forms. One of them is marketing expenses that are not properly described, or whose payment date is left unclear. The commentary notes that under section 112, headed "Other ineffective appointments and reappointments", an appointment that does not comply with section 104 is ineffective from the time it is made, so a vague marketing line is a risk for the agent as well as the seller.

Written authority comes before the spend

The central rule is short. An agent can recover an expense only if the seller authorised it in writing, in the appointment, before it was incurred.

Sections 89 and 90 of the Act carry the headings "Restriction on recovery of reward or expense: no proper authorisation etc." and "Restriction on recovery of reward or expense above amount allowed". The Queensland Law Handbook, published by Caxton Legal Centre, summarises their effect: to recover commission or expenses an agent must hold the right licence, be properly appointed in the way the legislation prescribes, and must not recover more than the reward or expenses stated in the appointment. For expenses there is a second ceiling: no more than was actually spent.

The Office of Fair Trading says the same thing from the seller's side. Its commissions page tells sellers that they must reimburse the agent's expenses, but only where the expenses were discussed and agreed in advance, and that costs must be authorised before they are incurred. It suggests asking for a detailed statement of all expenses, and for a marketing plan showing how, when and why the money will be spent.

In practice this means a campaign that changes midway needs paper. If the agent proposes a second fortnight of premium portal exposure, a new set of twilight photographs or an extra print advertisement that was not in the original schedule, the seller's written agreement to the new item and its cost is what makes it recoverable. The Carter Newell commentary notes that amendments to a Form 6 should be initialled and dated by all parties.

What usually sits in a marketing schedule

No law sets what a campaign must contain or what its parts cost. The Act regulates how expenses are disclosed and authorised, and leaves the content to the seller and the agent. A schedule attached to a Form 6 will usually draw on the same short list.

• Portal listings. The major property websites sell listings in tiers, with higher tiers buying a larger tile, a higher position in search results and a longer run. This is commonly the largest single line.
• Photography and video. Still photographs, and sometimes drone footage, twilight shots or a walk-through video.
• Floor plan and copywriting. A measured plan and the written description.
• Signboard. A standard board or a larger photo board, with installation and removal.
• Print and digital extras. Newspaper or magazine space, brochures, letterbox drops, social media advertising.
• Auction costs. Where the home goes to auction, the auctioneer's fee is normally charged as its own item.
• Styling. Furniture hire or partial styling, which is often contracted directly between the seller and a stylist and may never appear on the agent's schedule at all.

This guide gives no dollar figures for those items, on purpose. Portal prices vary by suburb and tier, the other items vary by supplier, and no government body or industry association publishes a dated price schedule for Queensland that could be quoted fairly. The useful numbers are the ones on the quote in front of the seller, compared with the quote from the next agent.

Two questions help when reading a schedule. Who supplies each item: an outside business, or the agency itself? An in-house photography or design fee is still an expense that must be listed and authorised. And which items are fixed prices, and which are ceilings that may be only partly used?

Rebates and discounts the agent receives

Agencies buy advertising in volume, and suppliers sometimes reward volume. A portal, a print publisher or a signboard company may give an agency a rebate, a discount or some other benefit linked to what it spends. Queensland law does not forbid this. It requires it to be visible to the client at two points.

The first is the appointment. Section 104, as set out in the Carter Newell commentary, requires the appointment to state the source and the estimated amount or value of any rebate, discount, commission or benefit the agent may receive for expenses incurred in performing the service. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance frames it more broadly: agents must declare any financial benefit they expect to receive from a third party. Its examples include rebates for referring clients to other businesses.

The second point is the account at the end. Under section 23 of the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014, an agent must give the client a written account of the amounts received for the transaction, showing how they were or will be paid out, together with the source and the amount of any rebate, discount, commission or benefit received. The estimate at the start becomes an actual figure at the finish.

For a seller the reading is simple. A rebate entry marked nil says nothing is expected back from suppliers on this campaign. An entry naming a supplier and an amount says the price on the schedule and the net cost to the agency differ, and the seller can ask whether the saving is passed on. The law's interest is that the seller can see it.

Three ways the bill falls due

The Office of Fair Trading's guidance says the appointment must give the due date for each payment the client will make. Nothing in that guidance says when the date should be. Three arrangements are common, and an agency may offer more than one.

The first two are matters between seller and agent. The third adds a party: a finance business pays the marketing invoices and the seller repays it under a separate agreement, which sets the cost of the delay and the deadline.

Several points are worth reading closely in any such agreement: whether there is a fee or interest and how it is calculated; the date on which the full amount falls due regardless of sale; what happens if the seller changes agents; whether the funder can take any security or lodge anything against the property; and whether the agency receives a commission or benefit for arranging it. On the last point, the disclosure rule described above applies in the ordinary way, since the Office of Fair Trading's guidance covers any financial benefit an agent expects from a third party. Terms differ from one funder to the next, and whether deferring the bill is worth its cost depends on the seller's own position.

Money paid in advance goes into trust

When a seller hands over marketing money before it is spent, that money does not become the agency's. The Agents Financial Administration Act 2014 treats it as trust money.

Section 15 applies the trust rules to an amount an agent receives for a transaction, or with a written direction for its use. Section 16 requires the agent to pay that amount into the agency's general trust account before the end of the first business day after receiving it. Section 22 then controls how it leaves. An agent may draw a "transaction expense", which the Act defines as an expense the agent is authorised to incur in performing its activities for a transaction, when the expense becomes payable. Fees and commission are different: the agent's own "transaction fee" can be drawn only after the transaction is finalised, and the Act gives the settlement or the termination of a contract as examples of finalisation.

The Office of Fair Trading's commissions page describes the mechanics. To pay for an item in the marketing plan, the agent either pays from the trust account, or pays from the agency's own money, gets a receipt, and reimburses itself from trust for the receipted amount.

There is one nuance in section 15. The amounts covered by the trust rules do not include a refund of an authorised expense for which the agent holds a receipt. Money paid in advance is trust money. Money paid afterwards, to repay the agency for a bill it has already met and can show a receipt for, is a reimbursement and is not banked in trust.

Whatever is left has to come back. Section 22 requires the balance of a transaction fund to be paid to the person entitled to it within 14 days of a written request, or within 42 days after the transaction is finalised if no request has been made.

GST on the marketing bill

GST is, in the Australian Taxation Office's words, a broad-based tax of 10 per cent on most goods, services and other items sold or consumed in Australia. Advertising, photography and signboards are ordinary taxable services when the supplier is registered, and the ATO's page on how GST works (updated 14 September 2026) puts the registration threshold at a GST turnover of $75,000 or more. Registered businesses include GST in the prices they charge.

The first thing to settle on a marketing schedule is therefore whether its figures include GST. A worked example with a round figure, chosen for the arithmetic and not as a market price: a schedule totalling $5,000 before GST costs the seller $5,500, because 10 per cent of $5,000 is $500. If the schedule is silent, a seller budgeting on the lower figure is $500 short. The ACCC's guidance on price displays, updated 2 October 2026, says businesses must display a total price that includes taxes, duties and all unavoidable extra fees.

The second point is that most home sellers cannot claim that GST back. The ATO's guidance on GST and property classes the sale of existing residential premises as an input taxed sale, and says of such sales that the seller "can't claim GST credits for anything purchased or imported to make the sale." For an owner selling a home they have lived in, the GST on marketing is simply part of the cost. Sellers who are registered for GST, or who are selling something other than existing residential premises, are in a different position and the answer turns on their own tax affairs.

If the home does not sell, or the appointment ends

This is the question in the title, and the answer has three parts.

First, whether marketing money is owed without a sale depends on what the appointment authorises. The Office of Fair Trading's commissions page tells sellers they will need to reimburse the agent's expenses, but only those discussed and agreed in advance, and it attaches no condition about a sale to that statement. Its page on appointing an agent says the form sets out the costs the agent could incur for the seller and when payments are due. An appointment can make marketing payable in any event, or only on a sale, and the words on the form decide which. When the amount falls due is governed by the due date written in the appointment, which is why a schedule reading "payable at settlement" with no fallback date leaves a gap that is better closed before signing.

Second, the two ceilings still apply. The seller owes what was spent, up to what was authorised. If a campaign is cut short, unspent budget is not payable, and money already paid in advance and not yet drawn for a payable expense is still the seller's money sitting in trust. Whether a cancelled booking is refunded depends on the supplier's own terms.

Third, the end of the appointment and the end of the marketing bill are separate events. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance sets the framework for ending an appointment to sell one or two residential properties: an open listing can be ended by either party at any time by written notice; a sole or exclusive agency runs for no more than 90 days, and either party may end it with at least 30 days' written notice, although a term of more than 60 days must stay in effect for at least 60 days. Ending the appointment stops the agent's authority to act. Whether expenses already incurred remain payable after that point depends on what the appointment says about them.

Commission waits for a buyer. Marketing is a purchase, and what is owed comes down to how much of it was authorised and delivered.

Checking the account and raising a query

Most questions about a marketing bill are settled by putting three documents side by side: the schedule in the appointment, the supplier invoices or receipts, and the agent's account. The law gives the seller a right to the third, and the Office of Fair Trading sets out where to go if the first conversation does not resolve things.

The order of steps three and four is the one given on the Office of Fair Trading's page about appointing a real estate sales agent, last updated 19 July 2024.

QCAT, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, describes a consumer and trader dispute as one arising out of a contract between a consumer and a trader for goods or services. Its page on the subject, updated 28 July 2026, adds that its descriptions are general and that the legislation decides what the tribunal can hear, so whether a particular marketing dispute fits is a question for the registry's published guidance or a lawyer.

Where the argument is over money still held in the agency's trust account, the Agents Financial Administration Act has its own track. Section 22 says a transaction is not treated as finalised while a dispute about the fund is unresolved, which stops the agent drawing its fee in the meantime. Sections 25 to 28 then deal with disputed trust money: the agent can pay it out only on written notice from all parties naming who is entitled, or after giving notice of its own view and waiting at least 60 days without a proceeding being started, or it must pay the amount into court once a proceeding begins.

An agent who lists every item, names the suppliers, completes the rebate entry and dates each payment has given the seller everything the two Acts ask for on marketing.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

About Kooky and Shaka →