Costs Involved with Selling Your Property
Selling property in Scotland involves several costs beyond estate agent fees. Understanding the costs to sell a house upfront helps you budget accurately and avoid surprises during the process.
Marketing Fees
Packages ranging between £450 – £850+ VAT
Home Report
From £475 + VAT
(carried out by Graham & Sibbald)
Sales Fee
1.2% + VAT of the final sale price, with a minimum fee of £2,200 + VAT.
1.2% + VAT of the final sale price, OR £2,200 + VAT*
*(for properties £190,000 or less).
Conveyancing
Solicitor Recommendations are Available Upon Request.
You're Too Expensive !
This is possibly the most common objection we hear. But how do you define an expensive estate agent?
You can look at this in two ways.
1. Which agent has the lowest sales fee? Who takes the smallest percentage of the final sale price?
2. Which agent will make you the most money on the sale of your property?
Let’s Look at the Numbers
Take a property valued at £230,000 in the home report.
The 1% agent achieves home report value of £230,000. After their 1% fee (£2,300), you net £227,700.
The 1.25% agent with a proven track record of exceeding home report value achieves £236,900. After their 1.25% fee (£2,961), you net £233,939.
The difference in fees is £661. But you’re £6,239 better off with the agent who charged more.
In our view, the agent who achieved the higher sale price is the cheaper option. The lower-fee agent who achieved less actually cost you more money.
Fixed Fee Vs Percentage
Fixed fees suit agents, not sellers. They guarantee the agent gets paid the same amount whether your property sells for £150,000 or £200,000. There’s no incentive to push for the best price because their income stays the same regardless.
Percentage fees align interests. If we achieve more for your property, we earn more too. This creates genuine motivation to negotiate hard, market effectively, and position your property to attract the best possible offers.
The question isn’t what you pay in fees. It’s what you achieve in sale price after fees are deducted.
Why Pay More ?
You’d be forgiven for thinking: let’s go with the cheaper estate agent, they’re £1,000 less than the others, that’ll save us money.
In many aspects of life, going cheaper does save money. Selling your home isn’t one of them. In most cases, choosing the cheapest agent actually costs you more.
We’re not talking about selling a secondhand sofa. We’re talking about your biggest asset and potentially the biggest sale you’ll make in your lifetime.
What Cheap Agents Actually Cost You
Going cheap doesn’t save money. It costs you in two ways:
Lower sale prices. Budget agents take standard photos, list your property online, and hope it sells. There’s no marketing strategy, no professional presentation, and minimal effort to achieve the best price.
Longer time on market. Properties with poor presentation and basic marketing sit for weeks or months longer than professionally marketed homes. Every extra week on the market creates stress, uncertainty, and makes buyers question why your property hasn’t sold.
Then there’s the time you’ll spend chasing your agent for feedback or updates on how your sale is progressing. That’s not a service worth paying for, yet that’s what cheap agents deliver.
Think about this…
If an agent is the best in your area, would they really be charging the least for their time, experience, and expertise?
If an agent is the worst in your area, would they really be charging the most and still have people paying it?
The answer to both is obvious.
Quality Service Through the Process
Most property sales take months to complete. You’ll be spending considerable time with your estate agent during this period.
Paying for quality service ensures your agent holds your hand every step of the way, especially when things get tough during any part of the sale.
A great quality agent won’t lose focus or energy during the process, particularly when they’re being paid a fair fee for their time and expertise. Budget agents working on tiny margins across dozens of properties simultaneously can’t offer this level of commitment.
The cheapest option rarely turns out to be the best value when selling property.
Fixed Fee Vs Percentage.
What’s the difference between an agent that charges a fixed fee and an agent that charges on a percentage basis?
Quite simply, an estate agent that charges on a percentage basis is invested in achieving the highest price possible for your home. A fixed fee agent isn’t.
Where’s the Incentive?
When negotiations get tough on offers for your property, ask yourself: where is the incentive for the fixed fee agent to push really hard to achieve the best price they can possibly get?
They’re paid the same whether your property sells for £200,000 or £220,000. There’s no motivation to negotiate harder, hold out for better offers, or push buyers to increase their bids.
Granted, the percentage-based estate agent isn’t going to become a millionaire by achieving you an extra £5,000 to £10,000 on your home. But this is about the agent’s attitude, mindset, and determination to get the best price for their clients.
In our experience, that determination is far superior in estate agencies paid on a percentage of the home’s final sale price.
It’s About Alignment
Fixed fees suit agents, not sellers. They guarantee income regardless of results.
Percentage fees align our interests with yours. When you achieve more, we do too. That alignment drives better results throughout the entire process, from initial pricing strategy through to final negotiations.
The difference in what you pay matters far less than the difference in what you achieve.
