What does being a co-listing agent mean?

[Benny]

I've heard brokers asking their agents if one of them wants to work together on an exclusive sale listing that the broker procured. Typically, they clarify this by saying that the agent would be a co-listing agent. What does this mean and what does this entail?

This is presumably very different from covering a one off open house for another agent?

[aslan]

This is very different from covering a one off open house for another agent. If your broker or another agent asks if you want to work on a listing together as co-listing agents, then it means you're on the deal full time. That means you'll be fully involved in every aspect of the deal, from doing an initial pricing analysis to doing the final walk through before closing.

Obviously, being co-listing agents means you're working as a mini team on an exclusive sale listing, which means you should keep each other in the loop and copied on emails at all times.

The split of work will vary depending on whom you're working with. If another agent on the team has a seller client and asks if you want to be on the deal together, it's up to the two of you to decide and agree on a split in writing. So for example, let's assume the brokerage has a standard 50% commission split between the brokerage and its agents. If an agent within that brokerage asks another agent to be a co-listing agent, they should agree in writing on how to split that 50% that goes to the agent. You should be clear on expectations on how much work is to be done by either party.

Sometimes, the split can be discretionary, as is the case with brokerages that offer company sourced transactions. This makes sense because the brokerage is more willing to test out new agents, but needs protection in case the new agent simply does not perform or do anything, in which case the split would be zero. However, most brokerages that have this model will have an unofficial maximum split for in-house deals for top performance.

[DorrisPurcell]

Very true!