Listing Your Home with a Realtor

Real Estate agents can work with both buyers and sellers. Some tend to concentrate more on one than the other. When you bought your home, you probably worked with a "selling agent" which is an agent that works mostly with buyers. The nature of real estate advertising and marketing make the public's main image of the real estate professional that of a selling agent.

A Listing Agent will perform many things that a Selling Agent will not. Most importantly, a Listing Agent will find a buyer for your home. This will be accomplished through many forms of advertising, some visible like the sign in your yard or the ad in the local real estate magazine while the majority of the activity occurs behind the scenes. After the "For Sale" sign goes up and flyers are printed, your agent's main job is to market your home to other agents, not to homebuyers.

First, your must complete a Listing Contract. This will set the terms of the sale including your price. You will want to take care not to list your home either too high or too low. In addition to the price, you will disclose what property goes with the home. Anything that is attached to the home will be a part of your sale. Be careful to specify if items such as your curtains, refrigerator, washer, dryer, satellite, hot tub, or soft water unit will be included in the sale. You may have an item such as a chandelier that has been in your family for generations and you wish to take it with you. This must be stated on your listing contract or it would be reasonable for the buyer to expect it to go with the house.

Your listing contract will specify whether you allow a lockbox or not. A lockbox is a padlock with a cavity inside where a key to your home can be placed. Only someone with an electronic key or the combination can get into the lockbox to access your house key. Having a lockbox available at your house makes it easy for other agents to get access to your house. Without the lockbox, agents representing buyers would have to set appointments to meet you or your agent at the house so they could gain access and view the home. This would be inconvenience. Since almost every other house does have a lockbox available, the one that is more difficult will simply not be shown. You will miss out on lots of potential buyers!

The realtor's commission will also be shown on your contract. This commission amount is a certain percent of the sales price. The amount shown is not paid entirely to your listing broker, this amount includes an amount that will be paid to the buyer's agent which is generally one-half of the total commission.

Most importantly, your listing contract will specify that your agent is acting as a "Seller's Agent". This means that he or she is working for you and only you! There may be times when your listing agent has a client who wants to buy your home too. Your listing agent knows your home best and may be the best salesperson of your property. Therefore, they will have you sign a form to acknowledge that they may represent a buyer of your property also known as "dual agency". Your contract provides for your permission for your listing agent to act as an agent for others on other transactions. Listing and Selling homes is your agent's profession. They will continue to list other properties and represent buyers looking at other homes while listing your home. Remember, a potential buyer for another home may be the perfect buyer for your home!

Your agent's duty is to bring a "ready, willing and able" buyer to present an offer. If you reach an agreement with the buyer, then the agent has done his job and earned the commission. Once the sale has closed, the real estate broker gets paid from the proceeds of the sale. If the buyer proves unable or unwilling to conclude the sale, the house is placed back on the market and the agent must begin earning his or her commission all over again. However, if the seller backs out or does not accept an offer than meets the price and terms of the listing agreement, the listing broker has still earned the commission. They may want to be paid even though you did not actually sell your home. Therefore, it is very important to be sure that your listing contract reflects what you would be willing to accept in an offer to buyer your home!