Is it normal for the EA to ask the seller to pay for the printing of a brochure?

[MrsFogi]

My DM is looking to sell her (very normal) house and the EA is suggesting she pay £250 for professional photos and a glossy brochure. I am just trying to work out if this is standard practise - it seems odd to me given that I take it the EA will then use the "professional photos" on the Rightmove etc listings so I apart from sticking the house on the web and dealing with any viewings I am not sure what their value is in comparison to e.g. PurpleBricks.
I'd be interested in any views of EAs or people who have recently used an EA.

That sounds ridiculous if she’s got a contract with them and they’ll get commission.

Ridiculous unless it's a proper mansion

Definitely not a mansion! Very normal family house! It looks like they are trying it on and looks like I will be telling her to use a different EA!

We were also told by every estate agent whilst listing and viewing that they can't give out brochures at the moment due to Covid, so she'd be literally throwing the money away!

Our estate agents (various agencies) always sent someone to take professional photographs free of charge. This sounds like a scam to me.

I haven't seen printed brochures for years. Everything is just on Rightmove, printed brochures aren't really needed......especially right now, due to Covid.

A house we almost bought just before C-19 had a well-produced glossy brochure, but no idea whether the vendor paid.

I think a lot of EAs offer a free photo service or a professional photographer for an additional fee.

I'm an EA. I charge far less than that (as the pro photographer doesn't charge that much). There is an additional cost for glossy brochures which are not necessary in my opinion. Most clients don't want them.

We paid a separate fee for professional photos and a brochure, but paid a lower commission. I just considered it a way for EAs to cover some up front costs if a house doesn’t sell / sits on the market a long time. It was standard for all the EAs in the area (Scotland), and very few houses went on Rightmove.

We were offered free photos or professional ones for a fee, and if they sold it they refunded the fee.
Professional photographer was excellent - removed all personal stuff, ensured everything looked really good. I would use the service again (with refund option!)

I had a valuation this week and the EA said they use a pro photographer and it's £170 but that includes the energy certificate which is £80.

The EA harped on about how amazing his photos were. I found a few listings and they are no better than any other listings. I was very underwhelmed esp after she kept going on about him

The brochure sounds like a rip off, I'd find another EA

I had a valuation last week and agent offered a package for £200 for professional photos. I liked agent and the others didn't charge so I said I'm not paying it, he gave it for free. If we used their conveyancing team we would get it for free anyway.

A glossy brochure does not cost £250 to produce, the EA is trying it on. It’ll go on Rightmove which everyone has access to.

If normal people could access Rightmove and add their properties EA would disappear.

We’re selling at the moment and our property is unique to the area and the road of five houses we are in as it has been extended. No EA can ever value it properly. I’d rather sell it myself as know more about my house than any EA. We’ve given them loads of details and they’re still bloody useless. They couldn’t get the details right from the start and still haven’t added the 360 view 🙄

Our contract runs out in a few weeks, we have a few viewings and if it’s not sold, we’ll sack them off.

@Longdistance - I think that it does cost that for 25,000 brochures that the EA's mate was quoting for.

There’s probably not 25,000 people in the town 😂

Have a house on market. Viewing has rules 're leaving doors open to reduce use of handles. Opening windows and wearing masks. They provide hand gel etc and each viewer is given a brochure. The cost of advertising, searches, brochures, solicitor etc is in price of £2500 including VAT. Can't say what the individual costs are other than the solicitor cost is £750 from this.