Section 01
Compensation is negotiated, and this page publishes no figure
Every brokerage sets its own fees, and every seller negotiates them. Publishing a customary rate would misdescribe the market and would suggest a coordination that does not and must not exist. The number that matters is the one written into your own agreement after you have compared what each brokerage proposes to do.
Because the figure is negotiated, comparing proposals on the figure alone is uninformative. Two proposals at the same cost can differ enormously in media, distribution, staffing, preparation contribution and reporting.
Section 02
The documents that govern the relationship
Representation is established in writing. A seller signs a service agreement with a brokerage that sets out the term, the property, the services, the compensation and how it is earned, the agency relationship and its duties, and the consumer relationships information that must be explained before it is signed.
Read the whole instrument, including the schedules. Ask for a copy of the unsigned form in advance and take it away. An advisor who cannot leave the paperwork with you overnight is telling you something about the relationship.
Conduct, agreements and advertising for Alberta licensees are governed by the Real Estate Act Rules administered by the Real Estate Council of Alberta.
Section 03
Listing-side and cooperating-side compensation
Ask how the agreement describes what the listing brokerage retains and what, if anything, is offered to a brokerage representing a buyer. Ask how that offer is communicated, whether it is negotiable during the term, what happens if a buyer is unrepresented, and how a buyer's own written representation agreement interacts with your listing.
These arrangements have been changing across North American markets. Rather than describing a convention, ask for the current practice in writing and have your lawyer read anything you find unclear.
Section 04
Tax handling, at a general level only
Brokerage services in Canada are generally subject to GST, which is charged in addition to the agreed compensation and shown on the invoice at closing. Whether any other tax consideration applies to your particular sale — principal residence status, prior rental use, corporate or trust ownership, non-resident disposition and withholding — is a question for an accountant and a lawyer.
This page gives no tax advice and states no rate. Ask your advisor how tax will appear on the closing statement, and take the substantive questions to a professional before you list.
Section 05
Third-party preparation and marketing costs
Costs outside the service agreement commonly include photography and video beyond an included package, floor plans, staging and furniture rental, pre-listing inspection, survey or real property report and any compliance work, condominium document retrieval, repairs and cleaning, storage, and paid placements.
Establish for each item: who commissions it, who pays, when it is payable, whether it is payable if the property does not sell, and who owns the resulting media afterwards. Media ownership is routinely overlooked and matters if you change brokerages.
Section 06
Term, cancellation, holdover and referral
Ask what the term is, what the cancellation process is and whether costs already incurred become payable, and how a holdover clause works — the period after expiry during which compensation may still be owed if a buyer introduced during the term completes a purchase.
Ask also about referral arrangements: whether the brokerage pays or receives a referral fee in your transaction, from whom, and whether any recommended service provider is connected to the brokerage. Disclosure of such interests is a conduct obligation, not a courtesy.
Section 07
Conflicts and dual representation
Ask what happens if a buyer contacts the listing brokerage directly, how that situation is handled under the current rules, what consent would be required, and how your confidential information would be protected in that scenario.
The answer should be procedural and specific. A vague reassurance is not a process, and this is precisely the situation in which a seller's interests are most exposed.
Section 08
Comparing two written proposals honestly
Set the proposals side by side on scope rather than cost: property research, measurement and floor plans, media package and who owns it, preparation contribution, named distribution channels, private-phase capability, showing protocol and staffing, reporting cadence and format, negotiation process, and what happens if the property does not sell within the term.
Then compare the total expected outlay including the third-party costs each proposal leaves to you. The cheaper agreement is frequently the more expensive engagement, and the reverse is equally possible; only the written comparison shows which.
Section 09
The fee-and-scope interview worksheet
The worksheet below assembles the questions above into a printable brief you can take into two or three interviews and answer in the same order each time. It records what you were told and who told you, so the comparison afterwards is factual.
It runs entirely in your browser, stores nothing and transmits nothing. It also proposes no rate, calculates no compensation and offers no legal or tax opinion.