Who pays for rental Ads upgrade

We have some apartment settling now and the advertising on REA and domain are very competitive given everyone settling at the same time.

Standard listing will be pushed down very quickly to several pages down, couldn't get much enquiry because of that.

We have made upgrade to premiere for several listing on REA and the result are ok, the cost are a pain though. $400 each per month.

My question is does it cost normally paid by agency or owner, because sometime the upgrade is sometimes more than the letting fee (1 week rent). Is there an industry standard for who should pay for this?

 

Owner pays in most circumstances. If the agent isn't managing the property, you will have no luck negotiating a discount.

 

According to realestate.com.au, the Highlight listing obtains seven times more views and four times more enquiry than a standard listing (see here). I think the Premiere listing is probably a bit of overkill for leasing and designed more for sales but obviously the more prominent the better - it's really a compromise between cost and effectiveness.

We definitely find the Highlight Listings attract more enquiry and views which translates into reduced vacancy in any market. Obviously therefore in theory, an upgraded listing will cost you less overall as a couple of hundred dollars for an upgraded listing is cheaper than a few weeks extra vacancy. You can be flexible depending on market conditions but generally I think it's best to advertise using at least a Highlight Listing. This is obviously at landlord's discretion following the guidance of their PM remembering the cost (as determined by re.com.au) is proportional to the price of the property.

As you mentioned, the cost of some of these ads exceeds the letting fee so it's rare the agent will pay for it as it would mean making a loss on the letting process overall. Once all factors are taken into account (fuel, tolls, inspection software, all standard advertising, time cost, etc.) which should be covered by the standard one weeks' rent plus GST, the letting fee is really only to cover costs, not to make a profit contrary to some beliefs.

- Andrew

 

Have never done a Standard listing - we're on a plan that makes all of our listings Highlight by default which partly contributes to our days on market statistics.