A seller who decides to use an agency for the sale of his property has the choice to sign a simple mandate or an exclusive mandate. We are talking about an exclusive mandate when only one single agency has the right to present a potential buyer. This implies that the sale cannot be concluded without the intermediary of the agency.
What is the point of conferring an exclusive mandate on an agency?
Knowing that he has no competition to dread, the realtor will not hesitate to make a more important marketing effort to conclude the sale of your home. So the exclusive mandate offers you as a seller the near certainty of selling quickly your property.
Your home or apartment will benefit from a better exposure in paper media and on the web. Depending on the location of your accommodation you will be asked to fix a board directly on your accommodation. You can observe yourself that in the windows of real estate agencies properties in exclusivity are highlighted.
Since the law Alur in 2014, an exclusive sales mandate must contain complementary services integrated into the mandate. These services can concern a photo-reportage by a professional photographer, a video or even a showcase advertising. If these services provide real added value, they will be able to increase visit requests and function as sales accelerators.
On the other hand, a property for sale in several agencies, can be presented at different prices. It is not uncommon to find on real estate portals the same house at different prices. Buyers who compare the different advertisements may be tempted to negotiate more the price. Another advantage of an exclusive sales mandate is therefore also the sale at the best price. Paid to the percentage of the selling price, the realtor sees his interests aligned with yours.
On your side, you will certainly be more relaxed if you entrust the sale of your house to a single professional in whom you trust. You will have only one contact who organizes the visits and you could give him the keys of your apartment or your house. Your real estate agent will be able to use its network to multiply the possibilities of selling.
We do not necessarily think about it but there is also an advantage for the buyer who will also have a single interlocutor in the buying procedure. The Realtor controls all the purchase offers and will not run the risk to be “doubled” by a colleague who would try to push an offer of his client. The sole agent has an overview of the sales process, and benefits from the total confidence of the seller customer.
Are there any drawbacks?
The signature of an exclusive mandate and the sale by a real estate agent does not incur any cost. The sales commission is the only remuneration of the real estate agent. It is only due if the transaction is carried out, after the signature of the authentic deed of sale at the notary’s office.
All mandates signed outside the Agency are subject to the rules of the Consumer Code, including a 14-day reflection period during which the customer can retract. In general, the minimum term of an exclusive mandate is three months.
The Realtor who has an exclusive mandate will be more inclined to invest energy and time to find you a buyer and to show you its effectiveness in order to keep its exclusive mandate. You can ask him for a report on visits and he can show you how he is doing the advertising of your house in the real estate listings. The dialogue remains very important for a good follow-up of the sale of your property.
If you have signed an exclusive mandate you cannot find a buyer by your own care or conclude the transaction through another professional. However, you can negotiate and ask, for example, permission to close the deal with a member of your family.
Even if in France the most common mandate remains the simple mandate, the exclusive mandate allows a coherent and qualitative sale.
