A 2% selling fee is not your take-home pay

Follow the money carefully

Suppose a home sells for $800,000 and the agency’s fee is 2% of that price, excluding GST. In this deliberately simplified example, the agency fee is $16,000 before GST. It is not automatically $16,000 paid to the person who showed buyers through the home.

Now suppose a written employee agreement gives that person 30% of the $16,000, with no other adjustments in our example. The resulting gross employee commission is $4,800. These numbers are invented to explain the calculation. The 2% fee and 30% share are not market averages, recommended terms or a lawful commission-only template.

There are different agreements

The seller’s agreement with the agency sets one commercial relationship. The worker’s pay agreement sets another. Fair Work explains that commission can supplement wages or, where the relevant rules permit it, form the whole wage. Piece rates and commission payments.

A beginner may be supporting several people on a sale. Someone else may have listed the property or managed the negotiation. Before doing any calculation, identify whose fee and whose share you are discussing.

It is easy to mix these amounts up when a job advertisement shows a large sale price beside a small percentage. You do not need to be a maths expert to ask for a complete example.

Gross pay still needs context

The $4,800 in our example is gross commission, before any tax withholding. It does not tell you a person’s final bank deposit, annual earnings or money left after personal spending. Do not subtract a guessed tax percentage and present the answer as everyone’s take-home pay.

Also ask whether the quoted package includes or excludes superannuation, how a base wage interacts with incentives, and which work costs the employer covers. Keep those answers separate rather than squeezing them into a single attractive percentage.

Test the less tidy versions

What if two staff members share the work? What if the fee is discounted? What if the client has not paid? Ask the employer to explain those cases using the written terms. Check the applicable award’s commission provisions before comparing offers. Real Estate Industry Award.

Your next step

Use What can you earn in your first year in real estate? to write a cost flow for each offer: agency fee, agreed calculation base, your gross entitlement, payment timing and your separate household budget. Ask an accountant for personal tax advice. The useful number is one you can trace, not the biggest number in the advertisement.