Where the commission money goes
The typical agency fee is split between just two parties; the salesperson who list and sells the house, and the agency whose brand the house is listed under. The split maybe anything from 50/50 to 80/20. depending on the salesperson's experience, and their time in the industry.
Any home staging packages or marketing packages in most cases, are provided at the cost of the agent, but any promoted packages are usually covered by the agency the salesperson works for.
Most home owners, may spend some money on tidying up, cleaning, and for maybe storing some of their possessions after de-cluttering their home.
For most seller's that is as far as they go, on getting there home ready for market. Some home owners may get a building report done at the insistence of their agent, but the seller, will usually pay for this service themselves.
For most home seller's, they will be footing the bill themselves for any; photography, signs, flyers, videos, marketing costs, internet marketing, and home staging required to help present and portray their home in the best way possible.
That is the normal experience for most New Zealand home sellers, and it has been like this quite a while, so that while most people mumble a bit about the size of agent commissions, the result is they usually grin and bear it.
Is this the best way for you to take your home to market?
Most seller's start off on the back foot, when they discover the success of the sales plan suggested by their real estate salesperson is dependent on how much money, they the seller, has available to spend on marketing, newspaper, internet, photography etc.
A lot of other seller's see this approach, as a "heads I lose, tails I lose" coin toss.
So they do not provide the agent with the suggested spending budget to market their own home, and instead rely on the minimum agent's package to get them to market.
This spending conflict often causes the seller's home to go to market and get a less than desired result.
A bit like trying to climb over a tall wall using a step ladder.