What Is the Difference Between Exclusive and Open Agency Listings?

An Exclusive listing or Exclusive Added Value listing offered my Exclusive by RE/MAX Malta is a new way of getting your property sold quickly. Choosing to sell your property in less than 90 days with Exclusive by RE/MAX is, to be frank, not even rocket science. This is because There are no extra hidden costs when selling any type of property in Malta or Gozo with RE/MAX Exclusive. 

Foreign estate markets

In foreign real estate markets, real estate agencies like RE/MAX, have been practising this way of selling homes for almost 20 years. Therefore, selling your home in less than 90 days, abroad, is not a possibility but a certainty. It is a proven standard across continents that has recently hit Malta and is achieving outstanding results in the local property industry.

Difference between agreements

The difference between Exclusive listings and Open Agency listings agreements mainly relies on your urgency to sell your property. Why should you sell your property with Exclusive by RE/MAX? Choosing to sell your property in Malta with RE/MAX’s Exclusive agreement ensures that your home is sold within a very short period of time. 

On the other hand, choosing an Open Agency agreement will ensure that you may have to live with the prospect of not knowing when your home will sell. In certain cases, this time frame can live up to the National average of eight or even nine months. 

The choice of selling

The choice really depends on your priorities – whether you are time-restricted or in a position to wait and see. The latter isn’t always the best solution however some homeowners in Malta still prefer the do-it-yourself scenario as opposed to leaving it up to a professional. Before we move on, it is important that you understand the facts about the real estate market today so that you can make the most knowledgeable decision.

Malta’s real estate market

The fact that a good majority of real estate agents in Malta are not professionally trained to deal with the homeowner and are more focused on making their next sale provides certain instability in the market. 

You may have experienced that, when a real estate agent comes to view a property in Malta for a first-time inspection, they tend to whip in, take your details, run through your property, and whip out as fast as they can, sometimes without even taking pictures. 

Open Agency agreement

When you sign an Open Agency Agreement with a real estate agency in Malta this means that you are open to selling your home by yourself, through an agent or through a sensar. The reality of signing an Open Agency agreement is that you are opening up yourself to various pitfalls that may or may not affect the sale of your home within a particular time frame that you may have planned and at a particular price that you may have had in mind.

Open Agency agreement service 

Regrettably, providing this level of service to a homeowner is practically cancelling out your chances of getting your property seen or heard of on the market. Unless an estate agent takes time to listen to your expectations, takes proper pictures (NOT with their Mobile), measures the rooms of your home and is competent to give you an indication of where you should price your property on the market – or guide you to whether the price you had in mind is competitive or not – you are not getting a professional service in today’s real estate market.

The Buyer’s Market

We have been facing a “Buyer’s Market” for the last three years with over 14,000 properties that are available for sale in Malta and Gozo, not to mention the abandoned properties we all know about and the properties that are available for sale directly through the owner. This is daunting because when there are fewer buyers compared to the homes that are available on a market, unless your property for sale in Malta is marketed effectively, your property will take longer to sell. In fact, properties that are listed on the open market take far more time (250 days – average) to sell on average than an Exclusive Added Value Listing or Exclusive Listings (89 days – average).

RE/MAX Exclusive process

Before you sign a RE/MAX Exclusive agreement, your property must meet certain criteria and must also be approved by a committee of managers or senior sales associates working within the RE/MAX ranks. The process is not complicated and takes a very short period of time to get your listing out to the market as an Exclusive Added Value Listing. The overall difference is that our approach is far more professional than the average service provided on the market and it achieves results. Read more about 5 reasons for selling your property exclusively with RE/MAX.

RE/MAX Exclusive agent

One of the main differences in the way we will handle your home is that the sales associate that will be inspecting your property will be specialised in the “niche area” of where your property lies. Meaning that the sales associate will be competent enough to understand the properties listed in your area and is able to provide you a “Comparison Market Analysis report” for your property. By providing you with this report you will understand where your property stands compared to other properties that are similar to yours and in the same area. This report also assists you in understanding what price you should market your property in today’s market. It also eliminates the endless suggestions from neighbours, friends and architects that may or may not understand the Malta real estate market better than you.

There are endless advantages to signing an “Exclusive Added Value Listing” Agency or Exclusive by RE/MAX Agreement. To understand the process of getting your property in Malta listed and the myriad of marketing tools we use to get your home sold contact one of our offices or send an email to marketing@remax.com.mt.