*Open Listings vs Exclusive Listings: Eye-opener for Unsuspecting
Homeowners Selling their Homes in Ghana: *

If you look up the definition of an *Open Listing* in any real estate
textbook, it is going to read something like this: An open listing in real
estate practice is a listing given to any number of real estate brokers
without liability to compensate any of them except the one who first secures
a buyer who is ready, willing, and able to meet the terms of the listing or
secures the seller's acceptance of another offer. The sale of the property
automatically terminates all open listings.

Again, if you look up the textbook definition of *An Exclusive Right to Sell
Listing* in real estate practice, it will read something like this:

It is an employment contract giving the broker the right to collect
commission if the property is sold by anyone, including the owner, during
the term of the listing agreement. For example: Kojo gives Kokofu Realty an
*Exclusive Right to Sell Listing** *on his house. If the house is sold
during the time of the listing, Kokofu Realty is entitled to a commission. If
another broker from Dzalele Realty procured the buyer who consummated the
sale, Kokofu Realty is still entitled to the commission but could enter into
agreement with Dzalele Realty to split the commission.

There is a third form of listing which gives homeowners the right to sell
the property themselves without paying the agent a commission. It is called
an *Exclusive Agency Listing* and it is an employment contract giving only
one Brokerage Firm for a specified time, the right to sell the property and
also allowing the owner alone to sell the property without paying a
commission.
For example, if Kwabena gives Abena Realty an *exclusive agency listing** *on
her house and an agent of Abena Realty or any other brokerage firm sells the
house during the time of the listing, Abena Realty is entitled to the
commission (which they could agree to split with the other brokerage firm).
If Kwabena sells the house himself, no commission is earned.



The normal real estate practice in the developed world is for real estate
agents to form an association that enables them to cooperate with each other
in the selling process by pooling all their listings together into one
market place called a Multiple Listing Service (MLS). It is an association
of real estate Brokers that agrees to share Listings with one another.
The Listing
Broker and the Selling Broker share the commission. The MLS usually
furnishes its members with a book containing all the listings or publishes
them online, updating the book or online data frequently. Prospective buyers
benefit from the ability to select from among many homes from any member
broker.
For example,* *Kofi and Ama, both brokers, are members of the *Multiple
Listing Service.* A home that was listed by Kofi under an Exclusive Right to
Sell Listing is sold by Ama. The two brokers share the commission. The
sharing may be 50/50 or some other split as indicated in the listing.

I have recently had the rude awakening of finding out that these very basic
rules of real estate practice have been turned upside down here in Ghana.
Some unscrupulous real estate agents here are busy making their own rules on
the fly, and unsuspecting homeowners are virtually at their mercy. It feels
like the wild, wild, West during the gold rush in California in 1849 when
300,000 men, women and children descended onto California by sea and land in
search of gold! Indeed, I personally had the unique experience the other day
of an agent asking me to pay him money upfront before he would show me a
piece of land that I had wanted to preview first before showing to my buyer.
I could not believe it. I thought he was dreaming! I told him “Thank you,
Sir!” and walked away from him.

Then I had another lady who had taken an Exclusive Right to Sell Listing in
a gated community in East Legon, who would not split her commission with any
selling agent, and was rather requesting potential selling agents to collect
their commission from their buyers because she was entitled to all the
commission from the seller! Wrong, wrong, wrong!!!

It is obvious that agents here know that most homeowners in Ghana are not
aware of the rules of real estate practice and would therefore accept
whatever any agent tells them. Ghanaians by nature don’t build their homes
to sell. They build them to remain in the family to pass on from generation
to generation. This whole idea of selling their homes is a novelty to most
Ghanaians and real estate agents here are confusing homeowners with some
unsophisticated, crude and shameless methods of real estate practice around
here. My advice to homeowners here who want to sell their homes is to read
very carefully the terms of the Listing Agreement they are signing and make
sure they are not boxed in and taken advantage of by any agent.

Currently, there is no Multiple Listing Service in Ghana. So agents in Ghana
do not have a pool of real estate data or list of homes for sale in one
place to choose from. It is all a fragmented bunch. Their saving grace is
the Ghanaweb web site where agents pay a ton of money to advertise their
listings. Why on God’s earth real estate agents in Ghana would not form an
association and build a Multiple Listing Service which would be very
beneficial to all of them collectively, only they know!

Our country is part of the comity of nations on this planet and
professionals in every field of human endeavor must practice their craft
according to international standards, real estate agents not excepted. It is
time real estate agents in Ghana stop ghettoizing this proud and decent
industry.

Someone better organize some real estate seminars around here on real estate
practice and educate agents carefully before the situation gets out of hand!



Peter Atsu Tsikata
Real Estate Consultant
Millennium Properties Ghana Ltd
Direct: +233-54-541-0350
Tel: +233-21-824-140
Cell: +233-26-655-7066
Fax: +233-21-824-132
Efax: 775-257-1811(USA)
Email: peter@millenniumtoday.com
Web site: www.millenniumtoday.com