Types of agencies

Sole agency / listing exclusively

If you have a sole agency agreement, then only the real estate company named on the agreement can do real estate agency work (i.e. market and sell) on the property identified in the agreement. This type of agreement encourages the agency to work harder on your behalf.

If you sign a sole agency agreement, you should not sign up to another agent, as you may have to pay commission for both.

General agency

A general agency allows a number of real estate companies to do real estate work for the same property, at the same time. If you sign a general agency agreement with more than one agency, you would only have to pay commission to the agency which succeeds in selling your property.

With this type of agreement, every agent has the listing but nobody has responsibility of selling the property.

Why list as a sole agency versus a general agency?

There is an obligation placed on the salesperson to provide a sale, which encourages them to work harder for it. 

To find out more about the different agency agreements, talk to one of our salespeople.