Listing and Buyer Representation
Listing and Buyer Representation covers how representation is created, documented, and paid for, and how a property is brought to market. CeRER items test the listing types, buyer-agreement mechanics, procuring cause, and the compensation rules that followed the 2024 practice changes.
Listing agreement types
An exclusive right to sell earns the broker a commission no matter who produces the buyer, including the seller. Exclusive agency reserves the seller's own buyers from commission. An open listing is non-exclusive and pays only the broker who procures the buyer. A net listing - where the broker keeps everything above a seller-set minimum - is prohibited or tightly regulated in most states because it invites divided loyalty.
Buyer representation and compensation
Buyer agency agreements are exclusive or non-exclusive and should state term, territory, and compensation. Since August 17, 2024, MLS participants working with a buyer must have a written agreement before touring a home, and offers of compensation to buyer brokers are no longer published in the MLS. Compensation remains negotiable and must be agreed in writing; a buyer facing a shortfall may negotiate it into the offer.
Procuring cause and marketing duties
Procuring cause is the unbroken chain of events that produces the sale. It matters most in open listings and in disputes between cooperating brokers. Marketing duties include accurate advertising, fair housing compliance in copy and images, disclosure of agency status, and prompt presentation of all offers unless the seller instructs otherwise in writing.
Worked example
A seller signs a 90-day exclusive right to sell at 5%. In week three the seller sells directly to a neighbor for $410,000 without the broker's involvement. The broker is owed the full commission: under an exclusive right to sell, the seller's own procurement does not escape the fee. Had the same agreement been exclusive agency, the seller would owe nothing for a buyer the seller produced, while still owing if a cooperating broker brought the buyer.
Traps
Relying on a verbal listing agreement, which fails the statute of frauds; assuming a buyer-broker fee is automatically paid by the listing side after the MLS rule change; confusing exclusive agency with an open listing; and mishandling a seller who instructs the agent to withhold offers, which may breach both fiduciary duty and state license law.