in the brokerage of homes. The listing agent and the seller enter a written contact (the "Exclusive Listing Agreement") under which such particulars as home price, duration of agreement, commission, rights & obligations, duties, etc. are specified.

The listing agreements are most commonly of the "exclusive sale" variety, under which the agent/broker earns a commission even if the seller finds the buyer (in an exclusive agency agreement, the agent/broker must procure the buyer to earn a full commission).

The Listing Agent/Broker owes the Seller full duties as her fiduciary, including honesty, loyalty, dedication to purpose, acting in the Seller's best interests, etc., in exchange for the Seller's agreement to allow the Agent/Broker to sell the property and earn a commission. The Listing Agreement usually specifies that the Listing Agent/Broker agrees to share, 'co-op', or split, the total commission with a Buyer Agent/Broker who represents the Buyer.

These terms are frequently set out in the Multiple Listing Service

Multiple Listing Service

A multiple listing service is a suite of services that enables real estate brokers to establish contractual offers of compensation , facilitates cooperation with other broker participants, accumulates and disseminates information to enable appraisals, and is a facility for the orderly...

 for the Seller and Listing Agent, and in the buyer listing service

Buyer listing service

A Buyer Listing Service is a system designed to gather relevant information, via data entries by a prospective home buyer, her real estate 'Buyer Agent', or both, concerning the Buyer's financial qualifications regarding a home purchase and the Buyer's needs and wants for the sought for home...

 for the Buyer and Buyer Agent.

See also

• Real estate
  Real estate
  In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
  
  
• Buyer brokerage
  Buyer brokerage
  A buyer brokerage or buyer agency is the practice of real estate brokers and their agents representing a buyer in a real estate transaction rather than, by default, representing the seller either directly or as a sub-agent. In the United Kingdom and Australia, the most common term is buying...
  
  
• Buyer broker
  Buyer broker
  A real estate agent representing the buyer. The term loosely includes brokers who work in firm that represent the buyer only Exclusive Buyer Agents or EBAs, and buyer agents from traditional firms, which can represent both buyer and seller in the same transaction, acting within the dictates of...
  
  
• Real estate trends
  Real estate trends
  Real estate trends is a generic term used to describe any consistent pattern or change in the general direction of the real estate industry which, over the course of time, causes a statistically noticeable change...
  
  
• Real estate brokers
• National Association of Realtors
  National Association of Realtors
  The National Association of Realtors , whose members are known as Realtors, is North America's largest trade association. representing over 1.2 million members , including NAR's institutes, societies, and councils, involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries...
  
  (NAR)