Are two agents better than one to get the job done?
I’ve never once been asked to co-list a property, and then within a month I was asked twice if I’d be open to co-listing. With this clearly on the mind of serious sellers, let me address this topic.
It’s what you see on shows like Million Dollar Listing – two competing brokerages are asked to put their heads together to sell one house, jointly. But in our market in the Greater Baltimore Area, it’s very rare. What I do see is some agents requesting to do a co-listing with their own team member due to their personal capacity, upcoming vacation plans, or just a more senior agent giving a more junior agent visibility to a transaction in exchange for some help with the administrative work. But a seller wanting to hire two unrelated agents, potentially from two different brokerages, is rare (until last month for me!) Are there advantages to having your property co-listed by two different brokerages? I’ll first ask : What are you hoping to get out of it? And, then tell you what I think you will get out of it.
I’ve been in the Baltimore real estate industry since 2008. I specialize in representing sellers in the Great Baltimore Area. There are a lot of decisions to be made when selling your home. So, are two agents better than one to get the job done? Will you benefit from more coverage or face more obstacles? I’m here to give you my perspective and also help you sell your home, whether that be in the near future or many years down the road.
What are you hoping to get out of it?
Are you hoping to get more exposure?
In today’s market, buyers generally find that your home is for sale because 1) their agent found your home on the MLS and sent it to them. Or, 2) the buyers found your home themselves on a consumer site like Redfin, Zillow, etc. Having your home listed on the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) gives you maximum exposure because that’s where agents find homes for their clients and the MLS populates to sites like Redfin, Zillow, etc, where consumers can search for homes themselves.
Some markets, like Atlanta GA, have more than one MLS, so it might be beneficial to have two brokers marketing your property, especially if one has access to one MLS and the other has access to the other MLS. However, in Maryland, we have just one MLS. As long as your property is listed there, it’s going to be easily found by buyers’ agents and is being populated to consumer sites so buyers can find it too. Any buyer that is seriously in the market is looking themselves and also has an agent looking on their behalf. You’re covered.
Are you hoping to have access to two databases?
If you’re thinking that each agent could bring to the table a different database of clients, I’d tell you : 1) homes aren’t usually sold by sifting through a rolodex anymore. As mentioned above, any serious buyer is looking on the internet and has their agent doing the same on their behalf and 2) if the agent is already representing a buyer, they actually can’t represent you at the same time – Maryland doesn’t allow that. The agent could represent you and still contact that buyer but would not be able to represent the buyer in the transaction. The buyer could still purchase the home without representation or by hiring a different agent to work on their behalf, but again, if that buyer is serious about purchasing, they aren’t waiting for a call, they are searching for homes on a consumer website themselves.
Here’s What I Think You’ll Get Out of It
Challenges with the Division of Tasks
Typically, in a co-listing scenario, there are two agents sharing the commission they otherwise would have earned in its entirety should you have only selected one agent to represent you. Earning just half of the commission, the agents can assume that each has half the work. In other words, since the commission is divided, the work per individual should be divided, too. The challenge comes in how the work will be divided as each function of the total job of selling your home is interconnected with the rest of the transaction. Marketing directly impacts showings, which generate feedback, which leads to offers or lack of offers, which lead to negotiations of terms, which lead into inspection, financing, and appraisal contingencies and timeline management, which ultimately lead to settlement statements and the closing. Where does it make sense to sever the responsibilities and how fluid is the communication going to be back and forth to collect the feedback and make the appropriate marketing adjustments so you don’t rack up days on market without viable offers, for example?
Communication Breakdowns
In a typical listing scenario, a seller is communicating directly with his or her agent on the sale of the property. You are the decision-maker, and the agent offers options and executes the plan. With two agents, who is executing what? Are you willing to have twice the number of conversations to accomplish the same tasks? Or are you planning to have conference calls between the three of you where you will have to coordinate three schedules instead of two, potentially burning time in getting tasks done? If you’re not willing to do either, I can guarantee you won’t all be on the same page and there will be communication breakdowns.
Where I Stand
Leave co-listing drama to the real estate TV shows. Two databases or rolodexes are just not how most homes are sold today. You need top-notch marketing - professional staging, professional photography, a compelling property description highlighting all the present attributes and future possibilities, and data-backed pricing, in one outstanding MLS listing syndicating to all the popular consumer outlets to drive interest. You need one agent that has those resources, as well as the know-how, proven sales in your area, and customer testimonials, to get the job done right. So, save yourself the hassle of hiring two, duplicating conversations, policing who is doing what, hand over full accountability and let one person run the show on your behalf.
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