Exclusive, sole or open listing? Choosing the right agency agreement

Before an agent lists your property, you sign an agency agreement, and the type of agreement you choose has real consequences for who can market your home and, in some circumstances, whether you owe commission at all. The three main types used across Australia — exclusive agency, sole agency and open (or general) listing — sound similar but work quite differently.

An exclusive agency agreement gives one agent the sole right to sell your property for an agreed period. You cannot engage another agent during that time, and importantly, if the property sells during the agreement period, that agent is generally entitled to the agreed commission regardless of who actually found the buyer — even if you personally introduced the eventual purchaser yourself. This is the most common agreement type for vendors who want a single, fully committed agent running a coordinated marketing campaign.

A sole agency agreement looks similar on the surface — again, only one agent is engaged for the period — but there is one important difference. Under a sole agency, if you find your own buyer independently of the agent's efforts, you generally do not owe that agent a commission on the sale, since they were not the effective cause of the sale. This distinction matters most to sellers who have a genuine chance of finding a buyer themselves, such as a sale to a neighbour, colleague or existing contact, and want to keep that option open without paying a full commission if it happens.

An open listing, sometimes called a general listing, works differently again: you can list your property with multiple agencies at the same time, and you only pay commission to whichever agency actually achieves the sale. If you find a buyer yourself, no commission is payable to any agent at all. In practice, open listings are less common for residential sales than exclusive or sole agreements, partly because agents tend to invest less heavily in marketing a property they know is also listed elsewhere, since there is no guarantee their specific effort will be the one that results in a sale.

Choosing between these comes down to how much control and marketing commitment you want from a single agent versus how much flexibility you want to keep. An exclusive agreement generally gets you the most invested campaign, since the agent knows they will be paid regardless of the sale's origin, but it also removes your ability to negotiate with another agent, or a buyer you find yourself, without still owing commission. A sole or open listing keeps more flexibility on your side but can mean a less concentrated marketing effort from any single agent.

Whichever agreement you sign, read the fine print on the agreed period and any automatic renewal or early-termination clauses before committing — agency agreements are legally binding contracts, and switching agents mid-campaign is far easier if the agreement's terms are clear from the outset. This article is general information about how these agreement types commonly work in Australia, not legal advice on your specific contract; agreement terms can vary by agency and state, so read the document itself carefully or have it reviewed before signing. Our directory lists real estate agents across Australia if you are ready to start comparing agents and proposals.

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