paying a real estate agent commission after the listing period expires?

[Anonymous]

hi, all. we are signing a two-month listing agreement with a real estate agent. there is a clause in the agreement that says the broker's fee "shall be paid if the property is sold, exchanged, conveyed, or otherwise transferred within 60 days after the expiration of the listing period or termination of this agreement to anyone to whom the property has been shown by the broker or anyone else, including the seller, during the listing period, unless a valid listing agreement is entered into during the term of said protection period with another license real estate broker."

so if I show the property to a friend during the listing period, and the friend decides to buy it within 60 days of end of the listing period, I have to pay the real estate agent the full commission (assuming I haven't signed on with another agent)???

is this par for the course? it's been a long time since I've sold property, so I don't remember this aspect of the listing agreement.

thanks for any input.

[Anonymous]

Yes, this is fairly normal. The point of the clause it to prevent sellers from finding a buyer, then waiting until the listing expires to set up a contract and "save" paying the agent commission. It is assumed that a client found after 60 days was not found within the listing period and just waited. Note that if it bothers you, you can talk with your agent and/or his/her broker and try to set a different "expiration" date. Some will negotiate that point and others will not.

[Anonymous]

This is a fairly typical provision, although usually it's carved out to include only people to whom the agent has shown the house or otherwise introduced to the house. The concept is that if the agent truly "procured" the buyer, they should be entitled to a commission. While it would be tough to argue that they should be due a commission if they did not procure and the listing had expired, if it's written that way in the contract, the yes they are due a commission.

My guess is that since the listing agreement was fairly short (60 days), and the tail was also fairly short (60 days), this might have been purposefully written this way. Typically I see 90 day terms with 60 days of exclusivity for buyers procured by the agent.

[Anonymous]

Our realtor explained that it was to protect realtors from people approaching the seller and saying "wait out your contract, and we'll buy as soon as it expires and save you the commission."

[Anonymous]

OP here. So helpful! Thanks!