Why Apartment Specialists Is Against Sole Agency Agreement

What happens when your real estate agent can’t sell your house or your apartment and you happen to find a buyer all by yourself? Are you required to pay the real estate agent? We all know that you did all the work by yourself, however, under the all sole agency agreement in New Zealand – you are required to pay them. Sounds unfair? In my opinion, it is quite unfair. But if you’re under a sole agency agreement, you need to comply with the rules and there’s nothing we can do about it.

That’s why I strongly suggest that you avoid sole agency, because if you’re under this agreement which is commonly written in the fine print. You need to accept its terms, that no matter who sells your property or how it’s sold, you will still need to pay your agent. On the other hand, if you’re under a general agency then you’re fine. You’re not tied to an agreement that will prove to be disadvantageous on your part.

In our company, we follow a certain rule that if our client can get a buyer that can pay more than what we can provide, well, then it’s quits! We can accept the fact that in this type of situation, we’re not good enough. Although, it hasn’t happened yet, because we at Apartment Specialist always give the best results to our clients, but if someone gets lucky which I think is far-fetched – we won’t charge a commission and we’ll write that in the agreement. We believe that’s how it should be!

In the NZ real estate industry, it’s standard to lock sellers for 90 days and they are required to sign a sole agency agreement. However, we at Apartment Specialists are doing it differently and we’re not locking sellers in that type of agreement. We believe in our ability to find a suitable buyer and we won’t put our clients at a disadvantage.