Question Every Home Buyer Should Ask: What Is A Listing Agent Or Listing Broker?

There are a few different types of real estate agents or brokers: selling agents (buyer’s agent), listing agents (seller’s agent), and dual agents. In this video, I discuss the job of a LISTING AGENT.

 

[Video Transcript]

Hey y’all, Zach McDonald, your real estate agent with Real Property Associates and today’s question that every home buyer should ask is, what is a listing agent? I recently did a video on, what is a buyers’ agent? And this video I’m going to spend more time on what a listing agent is. And a listing agent is a real estate agent that is representing the seller, and the seller’s best interest in a real estate transaction.

And I’m going to emphasize, they’re representing the seller’s best interest in the transaction. So if you are a buyer, and you run into a listing agent, their job is to represent the seller’s best interest, okay? They’re not looking out for your interest in the process at all. They want to … Now, they have duties of good faith and things to you and being a professional. But, they’re trying to maximize the profit for their client.

So, a listing agent is going to do a lot of things. They’re going to consult with you beforehand and help you decide what you should do to prepare your house. How much is your house worth, how do we price the house, what’s the market like? Getting the house prepped and ready to sell and then, all the marketing efforts. So that’s going to be the online marketing, that’s going to be the print marketing, all those things. Videos, 3D tours, HD photo, anything like that, right? Any kind of marketing. And then, you have the negotiating the contract and sometimes, the negotiation is where the commission’s made and lost.

You’ve got the marketing and negotiation, I’d say those are extremely important. And then, all the backend things as well. Just like the buyer’s agent, they’re going to become … I like to tell people, we become more like a Project Manager after the contract is negotiated and finalized. Because our job is now more … Essentially, managing the process. Making sure that all the pieces are together and then, communicating with clients. And I think communications are really important part of the process on the backend because you as the home buyer or seller, you don’t want to feel like your agent’s not there, doesn’t care about you anymore. So that’s something I think is really important, is just continuing to maintain communication and updating throughout the process.

And, in the next video, I’ll talk a little bit about dual agency and why I don’t think that’s a good idea.