Exclusive Right to Sell
By Jim Palmer Jr.

Often times potential buyers who have an agent, choose to ignore that formalized relationship and call listing brokers directly for information about a property, because they are under the mistaken impression that they have to go directly to the company that has the For Sale sign on the property. The yard sign may say, “Offered Exclusively by ABC Realty”, so naïve buyers get duped by the word exclusively. “Exclusively,” means that ONLY the listing company can represent the seller but any buyer’s agent, (including that listing agent) can represent a buyer. Buyers can feel free to contact any company to represent them and to provide information about any MLS listing to them. Even in cases where the property is listed by a company that doesn’t subscribe to the Multiple Listing Service the listing broker usually agrees to cooperate with any other buyer’s broker.

When a seller signs an “Exclusive-Right-To- Sell-Listing-Agreement” they are agreeing that the listing agent will get paid no matter who brings the buyer. Even if the seller finds the buyer, the agent gets paid. Sometimes the seller will list some exceptions to the contract for buyers he had on the hook before the listing was signed. Few savvy agents would ever agree to exceptions to the listing agreement unless they expire prior to the time they start investing time and money marketing the property.

Most Exclusive-Right-To-Sell-Listing-Agreements include clear verbiage that discourages unscrupulous sellers from sneaking around their obligation to pay a commission. This particularly applies to cases where a buyer has made direct contact with a seller who tempts the seller to ditch the Realtor® prior to the listing expiration, or who just want to wait until the listing expires in order to avoid paying a commission. If, within the agreed upon number of days (usually up to 180 after the listing expires) , the seller sells or contracts to sell the property to any person whose attention was brought to the listing (because of the agents efforts) prior to the termination of the listing, then the seller would be legally obligated to pay the commission.

While it’s true that agency agreements can be terminated, it does not mean that there would be no continuing obligation by the seller to pay for services rendered. Brokers usually spend many thousands of dollars out of pocket before a listings sells, not counting their time spent.