Pricing — plain, and in the open.
You pay a flat fee for your time on the platform, never a percentage of your sale. Here is the whole thing, itemised — the costs a commission rolls into one number, pulled apart where you can see them. Nothing bundled, nothing hidden.
If you're selling
List it yourself: free to build your listing. You pay $250 a month from the day you publish to buyers, capped at four months — $1,000 all up — and it's disclosed upfront. If you use an agent, the Homeground fee is part of what the agent pays to run your listing — you deal with your agent for their service, and we don't send you a separate bill. One listing, one fee — whoever runs it pays it.
On a typical home
These figures are typical and indicative — not a quote, and not a promise about your own sale, and not like-for-like: a commission is a percentage, so its dollar cost grows with the sale price; the Homeground fee is flat, so it doesn't. The two figures buy different things, too: the commission pays an agent to run your sale for you; the Homeground fee is the platform only, and you do that work yourself. You'll also pay the council's LIM fee when you publish, your own photography or advertising if you use any, and a lawyer or conveyancer to settle and register the transfer. None of these is a Homeground extra — a sale carries them whichever way you sell. In a traditional campaign, photography and advertising usually sit in a vendor-paid marketing package on top of the commission, the legal work isn't part of the commission either, and buyers often order their own LIM after they've offered. Here the same costs are itemised, on the table, and yours to control.
If you're buying
Nothing. Saving a search, listing alerts, and reading the LIM and title on a listing are all free for buyers, at every readiness tier. You'll pay your own lawyer or conveyancer for their advice and for settlement, and for any building report you commission — costs a purchase carries whichever way you buy.
The same process — you choose how much you do
Homeground runs the process either way. What changes is how much of the legwork you do yourself and how much an agent does for you. It's a spectrum, not a choice between an agent and nobody.
| List it yourself | Get some help | Full-service agent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you do | Photos, open homes, buyer enquiries | The parts you're comfortable with | Little — the agent runs it |
| What Homeground provides | The rails, on the record: the listing, the offer register, the LIM up front, the conditions — the same for everyone | ||
| What an agent does | — | Whatever you ask them to | All of it, for a fee they set |
| Your lawyer | Prepares the sale and purchase agreement, reviews every offer with you, then completes settlement and registers the transfer (settlement and registration are required by New Zealand law) | ||
| Who pays Homeground | You — $250/mo from publish, capped at four months | The agent pays Homeground per listing — you settle up with your agent, not us | |
If you're an agent
No subscription. You pay per listing — priced to matter, charged when a listing goes live, never a cut of the sale.
Your first three are free
Three free listings per office — no expiry. The full rails: the offer register, the LIM up front, the "on Homeground" badge, and every settled listing on your verified record. Enough to take a listing through to offers before you pay a cent.
Then $1,000 a listing
After that, $1,000 per listing (incl GST), charged when the listing goes live — pay-as-you-go, or drawn from a pre-paid pack — never a percentage of the sale, never a win-fee. All-in: the rails, the badge, your verified-record entry, and the buyers who come through Homeground. On an agent-run listing this is the whole Homeground fee — it replaces the seller's, so a listing is only ever charged once.
Offices: listing packs
No seats, ever. A branch buys a pack — 10 listings $8,500 · 25 listings $18,750 (incl GST) — and any licensee draws it down. Twelve-month expiry.
Pitch to compete — free
You choose how agents compete: a seller can invite the agents they want, or open it to any verified agent and pick from those who put their hand up. Either way the seller chooses on recorded, settled-sales track record. Pitching is free — you only pay the listing fee if you're appointed and it goes live.
On launch, no one has a Homeground record yet — it starts at your first listing and builds from there. What you already have doesn't reset: your reputation, your relationships and your results still travel with you. Homeground just puts what happens here on the record too, so early listings are worth more than late ones — the founding agents set the benchmark everyone who follows is measured against.
Where do the buyers come from? Homeground isn't trying to out-advertise Trade Me — that's where the country looks, and you should keep advertising there for reach. What Homeground does is run the sale: the offers, the LIM, the conditions, on the record. List where the eyes are; run the process where it's accountable. Nothing stops you doing both on the same property — just not by putting a Homeground link in your Trade Me ad, which their listing rules don't allow.
How you reflect the listing fee in your own pricing is your call — some agencies carry it, some fold it into their fee. That's between you and your client; Homeground only ever charges the one flat fee per listing.
If you're a lawyer or conveyancer
The planned model: a flat annual membership to be on the panel — free until 31 December 2026, then $1,800/year for one to three practitioners, $3,600/year for four or more. The fee doesn't vary with how many clients you gain here, and panel ordering is neutral — no referral fees in either direction, in any form. Buyers and sellers choose their own lawyer from a directory listing; Homeground doesn't refer, recommend or rank anyone, and no one pays to appear or to be placed higher. What your own conduct rules require you to disclose is a matter for you — the design goal is that there is nothing changing hands to disclose.
The vetting work is yours, and it's paid directly to you. When a buyer asks you to check a listing's LIM and title before they offer, they pay you for that — Homeground takes nothing from it. Because the LIM sits on the listing once, each buyer's lawyer reviews the same document — and advises whether a fresh one is needed — because a LIM speaks as at the day it was issued, or because a buyer may want one issued in their own name. One listing can mean several vetting jobs, not one conveyance at the very end.
What appears on the panel: your name, firm and area of practice, and the regions you cover. No ratings, no ranking, no "featured" slots. You can update your listing or leave at any time.
Why a flat fee, not a commission
A percentage commission puts one number on several things at once — winning your trust, running the sale, negotiating — and you can't see what each part costs. Marketing and the legal work are usually extra again. Homeground pulls them apart. You pay a flat fee for your time on the platform; you choose and pay an agent for their service if you want one; your lawyer does the legal work. You can see what each part costs, and you only pay for what you use.
Questions
What if my house doesn't sell?
You're billed monthly from the day you publish, capped at four months. If it sells in a fortnight, you pay for a fortnight. If it takes longer, the fee stops at the cap. Either way, that's the whole platform cost — there is no commission waiting at the end. The position isn't unusual, either: in a traditional campaign the vendor-paid marketing money is usually spent whether or not the home sells.
Do I still need a lawyer?
Yes. In New Zealand a lawyer or conveyancer settles and registers the transfer — that's the law, not a platform limit. Other countries have different requirements, and country-specific versions of Homeground may follow.
What does an agent cost on Homeground?
Whatever the agent sets for their service — Homeground never takes a percentage of your sale from anyone. The agent pays Homeground a flat fee per listing to use the rails; how they reflect that in their own fee is between you and them. Either way, a listing is only ever charged once.
How is this different from Trade Me?
Trade Me advertises your house to the country's biggest property audience, and does that well. Homeground runs the process — the offers, the LIM, the conditions, on the record. Use Trade Me to be seen; use Homeground to run your sale.
All pricing and platform features described are planned and indicative, shown to illustrate the membership model. Nothing here is on sale in this demo and it is subject to change before any launch. Prices include GST. A flat fee instead of a percentage commission; you will still need a lawyer or conveyancer to settle.