Expert: liznarr - 10/17/2007

Question
My partner and I are trying to sell our house. It as been on the market since June this year. At first we had a lot of people looking and we had one offer, but they pulled out. That was in August. Since then we have had no viewings. I know it is a quiet time but I just want to get things moving again.
I have seen a few people put their property on sale with two different agents. Can I do this? If so how do I go about it and will it cost me more? I just thought if I could put it on with another agent aswell we might reach more people.

Answer
Karen,

There are three different types of listing agreements:

1.   Open  -  An owner can list with any number of companies and ALSO sell the property himself with no fees due a real estate company if the Owner sells the property.  Which ever company sells the property is entitled to the commission.  No others are paid.

2.   Exclusive Agency  -  An owner lists with only ONE real estate company, and also can sell the property himself, with no fees due the real estate company in the event of a sale by the owner.  Any real estate company other than the listing company can also sell … IF the listing company will agree to co-broke and share commission with a selling company different than the listing company.

3.   Exclusive Right to Sell -  An owner lists with only ONE real estate company.  Since the owner is giving up his “right to sell,” should the owner sell the property, a fee would still be due the listing company at closing.  Most listing companies will gladly pay a co-broke fee (when a different company sells another company’s listing) at closing under an Exclusive Right to Sell listing.

In theory, an owner could list with two different companies under numbers 2 and 3 above; however, the owner would be obligated to pay a fee to both companies in the event of a sale BY EITHER COMPANY …OR THE OWNER HIMSELF …the only exception being if the owner sold his own property under number two above.

The only way to get around this would be for each company to agree to either waive or reduce their fee if the “other” company sold.

Unless a listing were a high-dollar listing with some type of guarantee of “some” money being collected in the event of a sale with two different listing companies, I am doubtful you will find many companies to cooperate with you.  The drawback for a company is that if they invest time and money in a listing, they expect to be paid.

If you know of persons who have simultaneously used two different companies, I would suggest calling these people to find out the details of their arrangement and go from there.

A better way for you to go about selling your home is to sit down with your listing agent and find out WHY he/she thinks your home is not selling.  Is it overpriced?  Is the location not that desirable?  Is it the condition?  Do you have curb appeal?  Is it being advertised?  If so, where and how often?

Insist that your agent get more aggressive and send out flyers and/or hold an agent or public open house and/or do more advertising.  (I am not a big fan of open houses, because I do not think – generally – homes are sold this way.)  But … anytime you can get more people (agents or the public) inside your house, it’s another opportunity to sell.

Don’t forget that most areas of the country are in a buyer’s market right now, and your pricing is crucial.  Even if it was in line in June, conditions in your area could have worsened – and you may need to regroup.  You might even offer a bonus to a selling agent.  Be creative.

I hope some or all of the above will be helpful to you.  Good luck to you, and feel free to write again if you have additional questions.

Regards,
Elizabeth