The fee is not the expensive part, and why there is no market rate here
You get one shot at selling the business you spent years building, and a botched, leaked or stale sale can taint it forever. A business is not a car.
Last updated 15 September 2026.
Get my free appraisal, in writingCall 0431 124 128
No obligation. Nothing is published. Nobody is contacted.
You get one shot at selling the business you spent years building, and a botched, leaked or stale sale can taint it forever. A business is not a car you can relist next week. When you take it to market, the market remembers.
Word gets out that it is for sale and cannot find a buyer. Competitors smell blood. Your best staff quietly update their resumes. Customers wonder whether you are still going to be around. Suppliers get nervous. The buyers who circle back later assume something is wrong with it, because if it was any good, why is it still on the market?
A business that has been shopped around and gone stale carries a stink that a fresh, properly run listing never does. You can drop the price and it still will not shift, because the story has already been written.
That is the real cost of getting this wrong, and it is not the fee you saved. It is the value you destroyed on the one asset you cannot afford to get wrong. Run properly the first time, the business never gets tainted, and when the result is right the fee is invisible. The full argument is here.
So the rest of this page is the money, in full, with nothing held back for the meeting.
The fee structures used in Australian business broking
| Structure | How it is charged | Whose interests it aligns with | What to ask about it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of sale price | A stated percentage, written into part 7 of the PO Form 6A. Section 88 of the Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld) requires commission to be claimed only for actual amounts, so it applies to the price achieved rather than to an asking price. | You and the agent, for as long as the negotiation is about big movements in price. It aligns less well on the last stretch, where a further lift moves the fee by a fraction of itself and moves your proceeds by the whole of it. | Is the percentage applied to the price actually achieved, does the figure you have quoted include GST, and what is excluded from the price it is calculated on, such as stock or plant. |
| Sliding scale | A schedule of rates across price bands, written into part 7 as a schedule. Nothing in the Act prohibits it, but every rate and threshold has to be in the appointment before signature and cannot be varied afterwards. | It depends which way the scale runs. A rate that falls as the price rises sharpens the incentive at the bottom of the range and dulls it at the top. A rate that rises does the opposite. | For the whole schedule in writing, and for a worked calculation at your expected price and at a price ten per cent above it, so you can see what an extra dollar of price is worth to each of you. |
| Minimum fee | A floor payable regardless of the price achieved, written into part 7 alongside the rate. | The agent, on smaller transactions where a percentage would not cover the work. Below the floor there is no link at all between the price you get and the fee you pay. | At what price the floor stops binding, whether it still applies if the business sells for less than the appraisal, and whether it applies to a partial sale or an asset only sale. |
| Engagement or appraisal fee | An amount payable at or near signing. Part 8 section 3 of the PO Form 6A takes it as an other fee, requiring a description, an amount and a date for payment. | The agent’s cash flow, and, stated honestly, the work that has to happen before anything sells. Whether it aligns with you turns on whether it is credited later and what is delivered for it. | Is it credited against anything payable on settlement, is any of it refundable, exactly what is delivered for it, and what happens to it if you withdraw before the work is done. |
| Marketing or advertising contribution | An authorised amount in part 8 section 1 of the PO Form 6A with a stated time for payment. Queensland Government guidance says the money goes into the agent’s trust account and the agent must produce receipts. | Nobody automatically. It is your money spent on your campaign, so it aligns with you only where it is capped as a number, held in trust until spent, receipted, and reconciled at the end. | Is the authorised amount a figure rather than an estimate, is it held in trust, do you receive receipts, is an unspent balance returned, and does the agent receive any rebate from any supplier or platform, which part 8 section 4 requires to be disclosed. |
| Success fee only | Part 7 completed with the payment trigger, and parts 8 sections 1 and 3 left at nil. Nothing is payable unless the trigger is met. | You, on risk, because an unsuccessful campaign costs you nothing. It also puts the entire cost of that campaign on the agent, which is a quiet pressure on how much gets spent on marketing and on how long a listing is kept alive. | What the marketing budget actually is when nothing is charged for it, who carries the portal cost, and what triggers payment: contract, unconditional or settlement. |
| Fixed campaign fee | A stated dollar amount for a defined scope. Part 7 of the PO Form 6A permits commission as a dollar amount, and part 8 covers other stated fees and the marketing authorisation. | You on certainty, because the cost is knowable before you commit and your exposure if the business does not sell is a single number. A fixed amount on its own does not reward a higher price, which is why it is usually paired with something that does. | What is inside the fixed scope and what is outside it, whether any advertising can be invoiced on top, whether it is credited against anything payable at settlement, and what is refunded if part of the scope is never delivered. |
Structures are named from the fields of the Office of Fair Trading approved PO Form 6A, commercial agent appointment or reappointment, version 1 dated May 2024, parts 7 and 8, and from the Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld). There is no dollar figure and no percentage range in this table because none could be sourced. Checked on 14 August 2026: the Queensland Office of Fair Trading, which states only that commission is unregulated and negotiable; Queensland Government seller guidance, which tells you to obtain two or three quotes; business.gov.au; the Australian Institute of Business Brokers; and the Real Estate Institute of Queensland. None of the five publishes a business broking rate or range.
The campaign fee is not refunded if the business does not sell. That is why the appraisal comes first and costs nothing, and why I will tell you plainly if I do not think the business is saleable yet.
Why this page has no market rate on it
Tony Pope holds Queensland Office of Fair Trading licence 4963575, issued in July 2026, and is a member of the Australian Institute of Business Brokers. The licence itself is checkable on the free Fair Trading Licensing Register at ftlr.fairtrading.qld.gov.au, which returns the licence number, the holder’s name, the licence type and a ‘details current at’ date. The Office of Fair Trading states that the free register cannot be used as evidence in legal proceedings, and sells an official extract for $20.70 from 1 July 2026.
What sits behind the page is the other side of the table. He co founded, owned, built and sold a toy business with his wife, so he has been the seller signing the appointment rather than the agent presenting it. He holds a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and has built and designed online safety training programmes. He runs sales and marketing for a hinterland tree farm. His father in law spent a working life growing turf in Queensland, built the business to substantial scale and sold it to competitors.
It is also why the fee model above is published in full rather than saved for a meeting, and why nothing on this page quotes a market commission range. Five official sources were checked on 14 August 2026 and none publishes one. Under sections 18 and 29 of the Australian Consumer Law a representation made in trade or commerce has to be true and capable of being proved, and the ACCC’s standard is that “A business must be able to prove any claim they advertise”. That standard applies to what a broker says about a fee, and it applies in exactly the same way to what a broker says about their own experience.
Ask what it is worth
Free, in writing, and nobody finds out you asked. Tell me the trade and the suburb and I will do the rest.
Nobody finds out you are selling. This goes to me only, into my own database in Sydney. I will not contact your accountant, your landlord, your bank or your staff, ever, unless you ask me to.
If you would rather not put anything in writing yet, ring 0431 124 128. Prefer to pick a time yourself? Book a time in my diary.
Start with the number. Decide about the rest later.
The next step is the free appraisal. Thirty minutes, phone or video, no obligation and no pressure. Nobody finds out you asked.