Estate Agency
The services provided involves the acting as agent for a principal who could be an intending seller or a buyer of an interest in property or a person or company who intends to let a property. The Company also undertakes the marketing or sourcing of properties for developers and owners of large property portfolios. The sale of a property is usually on an exclusive agency basis where a continuous and concerted effort is made in marketing the property. Types of agencies include:-
Exclusive Agency
Exclusive agency refers to the instruction from a principal to a single estate agent to act on his behalf. The principal may make introductions but will leave the closing of the transaction to the estate agent. The principal must pay the appointed estate agent the agreed fee even if the estate agent was not the effective cause of the transaction.
Sole Agency
Just as in exclusive agency, a single estate agent is engaged. The principal may, however, wish to reserve the right to close deals himself and is not obligated to pay the agent his fee in addition to making introductions or an arrangement may be made for a discount in fees where the principal plays an active role.
Sole Joint Agency
This is a variation of the Sole Agency. The estate agent works together with the principal as a team and the fee is divided on a pre-agreed formula. The principal has the flexibility to compensate additional estate agents and at the same time maintain the advantage of having one estate agent in control.
Joint Agency
This is where more than one estate agent is appointed and only the estate agent who closes the deals gets paid. The number of agents appointed is limited and each is aware of the appointment of the others.
Ad Hoc Basis or commonly referred to as "Open Listing"
In this case, the principal can engage an unlimited number of estate agents on an adhoc basis and fees are paid only on successful conclusion of the estate agency transaction.
Apart from the types of agencies listed there is also the practice of co-agency or co-broking between estate agents. This is where the appointed estate agent enlists the services of another estate agent(s) and shares the agency fees accordingly. In such an instance the principal is usually not a party to the arrangement. A more organised form of co-agency is Multiple Listing.