It’s your property take control
Typically there are three main types of Estate Agency contracts, stay in control and make the decisions that best support your needs.
Sole selling rights
Never agree to sole selling rights unless you’re 100% sure that you won’t find purchasers from your own efforts – this is a terrible agreement and will probably cause you problems if you find a purchaser from your own efforts, or you need to instruct another agent.
An example could be that a family member decides to buy your home, they have had nothing to do with the estate agent, and you will have to pay the agent their commission!
Sole agency
This leaves you free to sell privately by your own efforts without paying any commission, but not through another estate agent.
It means that you can instruct other agents, but if they sell the property, you will still have to pay commission to the original sole agent as well as paying the agent who sold the property. This is a dual fee situation you want to avoid.
If you do agree a sole agency basis with an estate agent then make sure it is for a limited period.
At the end of the period you can use one or more additional estate agents without the above risk.
Joint agency
If you want to use more than one agent, it’s perhaps best to enter into a joint agency agreement, whereby you instruct two agents. Both agents have to agree to this, and should agree to who gets the commission on the sale, which may be shared on differing percentages.
Multiple agency – Winner takes all !
A multi agency agreement means you can instruct as many agents as you like. Only the agent who comes up with a buyer earns the commission.
The fee for this type of arrangement will probably be the highest of all the options available since all agents will be investing in your sale at the risk of not being paid.