Question for sellers..

I'm not selling a house but just asking out of curiousity.

If your listing expires, is there a grace period that has to pass before you can list with a new brokerage firm? Does it depend on the listing agreement?

And what if you make a sale with a client who came to an open house while you were with Broker 1 BUT they made an offer while the house was listed with Broker 2 (let's say because you lowered the price)? I would imagine that this has happened at some point..I'm just curious if anyone had any experiences. TIA

Re: Question for sellers..

I spoke to my real estate agent about this -- if someone saw the house with the first agent, that agent would get some of the money, but I'm not sure exactly how it works. Maybe the real estate agents on here can off some more insight!

Re: Question for sellers..

If someone saw your house while you were with agent #1, there will be a period of time after the listing expires that your listing agent (agent #1) is still entitled to the commission from this buyer.

For us, it was indicated on our broker agreement with our listing agent, it was 30 days.

for example a buyer viewed my house the day before the listing expired. WE were told that the buyer would be exclusively agent #1's buyer not agent #2 up until 30 days after the official expiring of the listing.

Re: Question for sellers..

Here's how it works with the standard MLS listing contract (of course, contracts can be modified, terms can be written in, so everyone should check their contracts):

1. When the listing expires, there is no grace period before you can re-list with another agent. So if your listing expires April 30, it can come out May 1 with another company. You are only bound to the first agent for the contractually agreed upon period, which is the point of having the contract.

2. As for the scenario of an offer coming in from a buyer that saw the house when the first agent had it listed -- IF you are relisted with another agent, the first listing agent is not entitled to any commission. There is a provision in the MLS listing contract that says "if a buyer, who saw the house while it was listed with the first agent had listed it, makes an offer within x number of days of the listing expiring [the number of days is negotiable, usually 90 or 120 is typical], then the listing broker is still entitled to commission." BUT it goes on to say that this provision doesn't apply if the seller relisted in good faith with another broker. So if you were listed with Prudential until April 30, the buyer came in at an open house held on April 21, you relisted with Remax on May 1, and the buyer didn't come back with an offer until May 15, Remax would get the listing side of the commission and Prudential would get nothing (unless the buyer stayed in touch with your listing agent and came back with your Prudential agent to make an offer, in which case the Prudential agent would get the selling/buyer side commission, but still nothing for the listing side.

The point of the provision is to keep buyers and sellers from agreeing together to deprive an agent from a rightfully earned commission by waiting out the contract. So that if a buyer came in at an April 21 open house, the seller couldn't say "hey, let's wait until the listing expires in 8 days to negotiate our deal so that I don't have to pay my listing agent her commission and you can get a better deal." But a seller can't be restricted from choosing another company to market and sell his home!

Listing agents know this going in - you can work very hard for 6 months to a year and wind up getting nothing if the house doesn't sell and the seller won't relist with you. It's a performance based job!

Re: Question for sellers..