What Is a Listing Agent and Do You Need One to Sell Your Home?

“It’s kind of weird verbiage,” Heuser admits. “Many articles and the Realtors’ board will reference the buyer’s agent as the selling agent because they are the ones representing the buyer and helping the property sell.” When in doubt, switch “selling agent” to “buyer’s agent” and the “seller’s agent” to “listing agent” in your mind, and that’ll help you keep track.

Benefits of working with a listing agent

A listing agent does much more than just put a “For Sale” sign outside of your house. For one thing, a listing agent lists your home in the Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, a tool where real estate agents for buyers and sellers share information on available properties. That’s instant advertising, even without promoting the home on the agent’s website or through other online marketplaces.

A listing agent also:

Sets the asking price

When you’ve lived in your home for even a short amount of time, you become emotionally attached. This can hinder you from gauging your property’s worth accurately. A listing agent knows the market conditions and researches homes that are comparable to yours in terms of size and other features to arrive at an asking price.

That price tends to be higher than homes sold without using an agent, in other words, those “For Sale By Owner” (FSBOs), NAR data shows. That’s more money in your bank account, even after an agent’s commission (more on that below) — and without doing that research and legwork yourself.

Advises you about repairs

After your home inspection, a listing agent can help you sort through which repairs are required by the buyer’s lender, which are structural or safety issues that need to be addressed, and which are cosmetic and not necessary to close the deal, said Neal Team’s Shane Neal, a veteran agent in the San Antonio, Texas, area, who sells 65% more homes there than the average agent.

Helps you stage your home

Home staging, which pares down clutter and revamps rooms to show off their purpose and features, helps properties spend less time on the market, according to 27% of listing agents surveyed in the Profile of Home Staging by the NAR. Much of this benefit shines through marketing, including online photos, videos, and 3-D virtual tours.

Markets your home

Listing agents often arrange for professional photography of your home’s interior and exterior, videos, live walk-throughs, and 3-D virtual tours. Heuser says his office provides a landing page for each property they sell with such information.

“Buyers right now are demanding to have video. We have water running, a ceiling fan spinning, fireplaces going — it just really creates more of an ambiance. It makes buyers want to see the house.”

These marketing efforts can also help you as the seller cut back on needless showings. If [potential buyers] can do this virtual tour and see that they do not want the house, then we don’t need them to go through the house,” Heuser says. “If they’re like, ‘Wow, I think that this is a good fit for me,’ then when they actually go inside the house, that is a more legitimate showing.”

Negotiates on your behalf

A real estate transaction has more moving parts than many of us realize. Beyond coordinating showings, an experienced listing agent helps you and the buyer arrive at a sales price, iron out any contingencies (such as a mandatory appraisal for financing), and navigate any problems with the title search, as well as the closing details. Those are all steps where you won’t want to feel like you’re in over your head.

Explains listing agreements

Listing agents guide sellers through the complexities of listing agreements, ensuring they understand key terms like commission rates, contract duration, and exclusivity clauses. By clarifying different types of agreements — such as exclusive right-to-sell or open listings — they help sellers make informed decisions, protect their interests, and set clear expectations for the selling process.

What value does a listing agent offer versus selling your home yourself?

In addition to the responsibilities and offerings mentioned above, a listing agent is there to be a sounding board and confidante throughout your transaction. The listing agent will communicate with the buyer’s agent on your behalf, and provide guidance each step of the way. They will help you negotiate the best price and terms for your real estate contract, and provide insights into your local market.

Let’s say you receive an offer that’s $15,000 under the asking price. Your knee-jerk reaction could be to reject it outright and say, “Sorry, that’s too low.” An agent who is one step removed from your personal connection to the sale might be able to walk you through more viable options and considerations to keep in mind. They may point out that the buyer is well-qualified, can offer you a flexible move-out date, or would be open to your counteroffer. Now you’ve turned an emotional reaction to a low offer into an opportunity to hammer out an attractive deal.

How does someone become a listing agent?

Any real estate agent must be licensed, although the requirements vary by state. Regardless, their experience pays off: A top agent with at least 16 years of experience has a median gross income of $92,500, according to NAR.

While there’s no industry prerequisite or exam to separate listing agents from selling agents (a.k.a. buyer’s agents), real estate offices can set their own requirements. On Heuser’s team, agents must close a minimum of five transactions working with buyers before they’re allowed to work with sellers on the listing side. The team also has an administrative assistant who only works on listings because of the marketing and other skills required.

How does a listing agent get paid?

The listing agent and the buyer’s agent are both paid by commission. Prior to the implementation of the NAR lawsuit settlement terms, this commission, called “cooperative compensation,” or “co-op” in agent terms, was listed on the MLS and was usually split equally between the agents facilitating the sale. The national average real estate agent commission rate is 5.8% of the sales price.

With changes to the commission scheme, the seller will be on the hook for the listing agent’s commission, around 3% of the sales price, while the buyer’s agent can negotiate commission terms with the buyer directly. However, a listing agent may still recommend that the seller offer to pay the buyer’s agent commission to sweeten the deal.

A strong listing agent will find out what commission other sellers in the area are paying so that your listing is competitive with those. Your listing agent will also communicate any commission to the buyer outside the MLS, a process that would be added to your to-do list if you chose to sell FSBO.

“Rules, laws, and ethics are different than what truly happens in the marketplace,” Heuser says. “You could really be doing your seller a disservice if you are a weak agent and you tell them to discount that commission, but the other sellers in the same area are offering higher commissions.”

How to find the right listing agent for you

Whether you find a listing agent through HomeLight or another means, such as a friend or relative’s referral, you’ll want to ask certain questions:

• How long have they worked as a listing agent? How long have they worked in your community?
• How many properties do they list and sell on average monthly? In what price range? How long are they typically on the market?
• Do they have photographers, a home stager, contractors, and other resources they use or can recommend?
• What’s their marketing plan for your home?
• Do they recommend any specific upgrades or repairs for your price range?

Many agents highlight a lot of this information on their websites, but don’t be swayed just by statistics. Focusing on your price point is crucial.

“You want to make sure that the agent works in your price range and the price point of what this home is going to be sold at. If an agent is used to selling $200,000 homes, their marketing and negotiation process is not going to be what it is to sell a $1.5 million home,” Heuser says.

It can be hard to think of a home where you’ve made so many memories as a product — but with a good listing agent in your corner, you don’t have to do that. Allow them to do that heavy lifting so that you can reap the rewards of a successful sale.

“If you go to any retail store out there, the packaging is one of the most critical things that get people to buy that product,” Heuser says. “When a seller’s house is going on the market, it is the listing agent’s job to help them understand how to properly package this product to market it the best and sell it for the most money.”

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