You are ready to sell your house. You have found an agent that you‘d like to work with. He or she offers you the option of selling your house as an “exclusive listing.” Sounds great, right? It might not be as great as you think.
An office exclusive means that you are giving the sole right of showing and selling your property to that agent and their brokerage only. Other agents and brokerages will usually be excluded from showing your house, and in fact they won’t even know it’s for sale. This is a problem because many buyers are working with agents from other brokerages, and in order to get the highest price for your property you want to expose the property to all buyers and buyers’ agents. An office exclusive prevents you from the exposure that will help you get the best price and it is the equivalent of keeping it a secret within that one office.
One of the benefits of listing your house with an agent is putting it on the MLS, the Multiple Listing Service. That includes syndication to multiple real estate sites that exist today such as Zillow, HomeSnap, Realtor.com as well as each individual brokerage’s website and many agent’s websites. This is important because buyers that are looking to move to the area will see your house online and contact their agent to ask questions and hopefully setup a showing. It’s much more far-reaching than most other marketing options because 90% of buyers are starting their home search online. Listing your home publicly through the MLS usually will help your home sell faster and for more money. The more exposure your house has, the more people who will potentially be interested in it and more interest can drive up the price.
Many agents that request this type of listing are doing it because they want to have the opportunity to be a dual agent and receive the commission for both sides of the transaction, which is common in our area. These agents will also tell you that they may discount the commission if you sign an office exclusive which may save you some money but usually will not help you earn as much money as possible on the sale of your house.
There are times when an office exclusive may work better for the sellers in certain situations. For example, if the seller is going through something and needs to sell their house but isn’t ready for the world to know about it just yet. Maybe there’s a new baby in the house and the timing isn’t right to have tons of people in and out, but it’s the height of the market and you don’t want to miss it. When this is the case, you can request a “do not publish on the MLS” which means that you want your house listed and you want the local agents to know about it but you don’t want it on all the sites just yet. This allows the agent that lists your house to co-broker the sale.
Whatever you decide is the right way for you to list your home, make sure you ask the right questions. Read all the paperwork to make sure you understand everything you are signing. In my opinion, if you feel that you need an office exclusive for your specific case, then you shouldn’t be signing it for months and months. If your agent is going to sell your house on his or her own, give them a few weeks. If it doesn’t sell, then it might be time to get in on the MLS to expose it to all the buyers in the market and reach the wider audience that will help get it sold.
If you ever have any questions about real estate, buying or selling a home contact me any time. [email protected].
By Nina Eizikovitz
Nina Eizikovitz is one of the top producing agents in all of Bergen County. With a background in marketing, she brings her experience, attention to detail and creativity to every deal. She stays on top of market trends to successfully achieve her client’s goals in the least amount of time with the least amount of stress! Eizikovitz is a member of the National Association of Realtors, the Greater Bergen Association of Realtors and the New Jersey MLS. She has also received her Accredited Buyer’s Representative® and Certified Residential Specialist designations.
