Open Listing Agreement Template

An open listing agreement is a contract between a seller hiring the services of a real estate agency on a non-exclusive basis to sell their property. Under an open listing, the seller may also enter into agreements with other real estate agencies in order to sell their property. In addition, the seller may promote and market the property on their own in an attempt to find a buyer. Unless the hired real estate agency is directly involved in finding the buyer for the property, no commission shall be owed.

Updated October 30, 2024

What is an Open Listing?

An open listing is when a seller of a property allows multiple real estate companies to promote, market, and sell their property. The seller will commonly not allow a sign to be placed on the property and won’t request the real estate company’s help in the event a potential buyer is found and negotiations begin to proceed. There is a multitude of reasons why sellers sign open listing agreements, which in addition to being an agent’s least favorite listing type, allows the following:

The seller can sell the property themselves without paying a commission;
The seller can hire other agents to sell the property; and
Commonly, the seller does not allow the agent to put a sign in the property or to post the property details online (MLS).