Estate agency is one of the few industries where professionals invest months (and months!) of work with no guarantee of being paid. Tradespeople don’t do it. Architects don’t either. If you want expert advice from a consultant, a lawyer, or even a personal trainer, you pay for their time. Yet estate agents routinely take on listings, invest in marketing, and viewings without any firm commitment from the seller.
And when things fall through, which they sometimes do through no fault of your own, agents are left with nothing.
Sales collapse. Vendors change their minds. Buyers pull out. The process is full of uncertainty, but the financial risk sits entirely with the agent. It’s a flawed model, and it’s why so many agencies struggle with cash flow, especially in their early years.
The solution isn’t to work harder or hope for fewer fall-throughs, it’s to rebalance the commitment. Upfront fees when listing a property shift the relationship from one where the agent takes all the risk to one where both parties have some skin in the game. This isn’t about replacing commission. It’s about ensuring that before an agent commits their time, money, and expertise to a sale, the seller is equally invested in the process.
Some agents structure this as a refundable marketing fee, returned upon completion. Whilst others require a non-refundable payment at the point of listing, separate from the final fee. Either way, the message is the same: estate agency is a professional service, and like any other profession, that service has value from day one.
There’s sometimes pushback against this idea. Some agents worry it will deter sellers. But the reality is that serious vendors, the ones who genuinely want to move, won’t object to paying for a professional service. And for those who do? They’re often the same homeowners who would have withdrawn their property months down the line anyway, leaving the agent with wasted time and sunk costs.
The best agents won’t see upfront fees as an obstacle. They see them as a sign of commitment to the process. When a seller is financially invested in their own sale, they’re far more likely to follow through. And when agents have a business model that generates income from every listing, they can operate with greater confidence, invest more in their service, and ultimately build a more profitable, sustainable agency.
For too long, estate agents have absorbed all the risk while sellers take none. But the best agents understand that to build a stronger business, one that isn’t constantly battling cash flow problems or relying on sheer volume to survive, things have to change.
The real question isn’t whether you should charge upfront fees. It’s whether you can afford not to in 2025.
Chris Webb is the founder of The Estate Agent Consultancy
