What kinds of things to look out an exclusive sales listing agreement?

[David Kim]

Hi folks,

I'm looking to put my commercial property on the market. I've never worked on selling one before. I've been talking to a commercial real estate agent, and they sent me a sample of their contract.

Is there any common practice that's predatory, and that I should look out for and have them change if I see it on there?

The only thing that raises an eyebrow, looking at it, are the conditions under which the firm gets a commission. They mostly make sense, but this one seems strange: "(d) Seller withdraws the Property from sale, or otherwise prevents Broker from selling it."

So does thing say that if at any time I decide that I no longer want to sell the place (e.g. let's say offers are WAY lowballed and I decide to go a different route and not sell), I need to pay them a commission? That seems awfully unjust, especially since I can pretty much just... not withdraw, but not accept any offers, and run down the clock on the contract.

[Scott Wolf]

Quote from @David Kim:

Hi folks,

I'm looking to put my commercial property on the market. I've never worked on selling one before. I've been talking to a commercial real estate agent, and they sent me a sample of their contract.

Is there any common practice that's predatory, and that I should look out for and have them change if I see it on there?

The only thing that raises an eyebrow, looking at it, are the conditions under which the firm gets a commission. They mostly make sense, but this one seems strange: "(d) Seller withdraws the Property from sale, or otherwise prevents Broker from selling it."

So does thing say that if at any time I decide that I no longer want to sell the place (e.g. let's say offers are WAY lowballed and I decide to go a different route and not sell), I need to pay them a commission? That seems awfully unjust, especially since I can pretty much just... not withdraw, but not accept any offers, and run down the clock on the contract.

 That part D seems suspect, but any document is up for negotiation.  I have seen some where it says something to the effect of "If the broker gets a full price offer, but the seller does not consummate the transaction, the broker is entitled to the full commission."  Once again, this can be stricken from a contract and any broker actually trying to enforce this might never get business in the future.

Commercial brokers will also usually want 6 months of exclusivity to list a property.