What does a listing agent actually do?

Who does a listing agent work for?

Florida presumes that all licensees are operating as transaction brokers unless a single agent relationship or no brokerage relationship is established, in writing, with the customer. A transaction broker provides limited representation and owes you honest and fair dealing, accounting for all funds, skill, care, and diligence in the transaction, disclosure of known facts materially affecting the value of the property, timely presentation of all offers, and limited confidentiality that covers the price you would accept and your motivation for selling.

A single agent represents you as a fiduciary and adds loyalty, obedience, confidentiality, and full disclosure to those duties. The single agent notice has to be given before, or at the time of, entering into a listing agreement or an agreement for representation, or before the showing of property, whichever occurs first.

Ask which relationship is being offered and get the answer in writing before you sign. If nobody hands you a notice, the presumed relationship is the one you are in.

Are you hiring the agent or the brokerage?

The brokerage. A person licensed as a sales associate may not operate as a broker, and may not operate as a sales associate for any person not registered as her or his employer. Money follows the same rule: a sales associate may not collect any money in connection with a real estate brokerage transaction, whether as commission, deposit, payment, or rental, except in the name of the employer and with the employer's express consent.

In practice the listing agreement runs to the broker, a buyer's deposit goes into the brokerage account rather than to the individual, and if your agent leaves the office the agreement stays with the office. You can check any Florida licensee by name, license number, city, county, or license type through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation license verification search, which is also where you confirm the license is current.

What does a listing agent do week to week?

Two kinds of work, and the calendar is mostly the second kind. The licensed part is representing you in the transaction: presenting every offer that arrives in a timely way, disclosing known facts that materially affect the value of the property, and accounting for funds that come into the broker's hands. The unlicensed part is coordination, which is pulling the parcel record, reading the recorded covenants, confirming what permits exist on the house, booking photography, publishing the listing where buyer agents look for it, and fielding their calls.

Once you are under contract the agent is the person tracking dates. Florida residential contracts run on short windows, and whether an inspection, financing, or title deadline has passed decides who is still able to walk away. Expect your agent to tell you which date is next and what has to happen before it.

Ask how offers will reach you and in what form. Timely presentation of all offers is a duty in both relationships, so the answer should be specific rather than a description of how the office usually handles it.

Who actually closes the sale?

The closing agent, which in Florida is a title agency or an attorney. That office prepares the closing documents, handles the money, and sends the deed for recording. Your listing agent coordinates the dates and the access and gets the file over to them.

The deed is recorded by the clerk of the circuit court, the county recorder for deeds, mortgages, claims of lien, and the other instruments relating to ownership or encumbrance of real property. In Orange County the Comptroller runs the Official Records department that does the recording and indexing.

Sale proceeds move through the closing agent rather than through your agent, so a question about wiring instructions or about the final figures goes to the title office. Knowing which office holds which piece saves a week of calls to the wrong desk.

What should you ask on the first call?

Four questions do most of the work. Which brokerage relationship are you offering, and will you put it in writing. What is your license number, and who is the broker of record. What do you need from me before the listing goes live. What is the first deadline once we are under contract, and who is watching it.

Have the address, the year the house was built, and your rough estimate of the ages of the roof and the major systems in front of you when you call. The conversation moves faster when the agent can stop guessing, and the answers point at which records you will need to dig out first.