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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.
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