If you have read this website sequentially, you will appreciate the importance of an experienced and trustworthy buyer’s agent in helping you find the right property and negotiate the Florida real estate system.

Well, exactly the same is true when selling – and your best ally in the sales process will be a seller’s agent with the same kind of experience.

There are however critical considerations you need to be aware of which in certain circumstances should make you very wary of using the agent you bought the house through - we cover these points in our briefing sessions. Another major problem Brits are not aware of in the present market are the hidden implications of new properties.

THE LISTING CONTRACT

Once you have found a real estate professional you want to use as your agent, We can advise you of those with a good track record) you will sign a listing contract with them. Also referred to as a listing agreement, this authorizes them to act on your behalf in the sale of your property. Listing contracts vary greatly, but there are some characteristics that are common to all.

Any valid listing contract must be in writing and should include:

• Employment. The listing contract is a personal services contract between you and the broker. It contains all of the terms and conditions that relate to you employing the broker and authorizing them to represent you in marketing and selling your property.
  
  
• Compensation. For any contract to be valid, there has to be “compensation” – which basically means, “if I do this, you will do that”. The listing contract will specify the amount and timing of payment to your broker. Typically, payment is a percentage of the sales price, payable at closing.
  
  It is important to note that your obligation to pay your broker may not absolutely depend on a finalized sales transaction. If the broker finds a genuine buyer who is willing to pay your asking price and agrees to the terms you have offered, but you for some reason you decide not to sell to them, the broker has done his job and is entitled to be paid under the terms of the listing contract.
  
  
• Title. All listing contracts will ask who has title to the property. Property can't be sold unless everyone who holds title interest in the property is part of the sale.
  
  
• Termination Date. The most common duration of a listing contract is 180 days, but you shouldn't sign any listing contract that doesn’t have a specific termination date – including contracts that include terms such as “until sold”. The listing contract is a legally binding document and you don't want to get locked into one with no clearly defined termination date.
  
  If the contract expires before your home sells and you still want to keep using the same broker, you can simply sign a new contract.

TIME TO PROMOTE

The listing contract is the permission your agent needs to start marketing your home by listing it on the MLS database and any other promotional methods they have at their disposal; leaflets and brochures, websites, print advertising, etc.

For your part, you have to be prepared for viewings at any time. Especially if you are not currently living in the property, agents will usually have access to show prospective buyers around at any time.

SETTING THE PRICE

Your agent will initially do a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) that will show the listing price of similar houses in the area as well as the prices at which the houses actually sold.

Remember that all agents have access to the central MLS, so they can also look at how many similar properties are currently on the market and how many have been recently offered but were never sold.

The agent combines these factors with the influence of other market conditions that may be local (is it a buyer’s or seller’s market in this region) and national (interest rates for example) plus your needs with regard to speed of sale and price, to arrive at a recommendation of the price at which your property should be listed.

BEWARE

There are many concerns we have resulting from the problems we have dealt with over the past ten years when Brits have sold their Florida property, which is why we have designed a briefing course to take you through all the points you need to be wary of - if you don't have the time for this we can at least suggest Realtors with a good track record. Sadly there are some agents who just focus on obtaining the listing but then do little to actually obtain a sale, this may sound odd but as agents are self employed in Florida it is often their own money they need to use to carry out marketing/advertising not the Company who they shelter under - think about it!