Can I list with you and still sell to a neighbor?
Yes. A neighbor can buy a listed tract like any other buyer. Whether a commission is owed when you find that buyer is set by the signed listing agreement, not by a Virginia statute. The traditional exclusive right to sell form, as the Federal Trade Commission describes it, pays the listing broker whether the broker or the owner caused the sale, so raise a neighbor's interest before signing.
What happens when you bring the buyer is written in the agreement, not in the Code
Everything here turns on a single term: what the agreement says about the commission if the buyer comes from the owner rather than the broker. That clause lives in the paper you sign. No Virginia statute answers it for you.
What Virginia law does is require the paper to carry the answer. Under Va. Code 54.1-2137, a brokerage agreement has to be in writing and has to state the amount of the brokerage fees and how and when they are paid, along with any other terms of the relationship the client and the licensee agreed to.
A sale to the owner next door falls under the fee terms and, if the two sides agree to anything specific about it, under the other terms. The full list of what the agreement must contain, and how it ends, is in what a Virginia brokerage agreement has to include, and the seller's everyday name for the same paper is the listing agreement. At this office the listing terms are laid out in writing before anything is signed.
An exclusive right to sell and an exclusive agency listing treat the owner's own buyer differently
The Federal Trade Commission has described the two forms that bear on a neighbor sale. Its descriptions are national, from a federal agency; they explain the forms, and they are not Virginia rules.
Under the traditional type of listing agreement, known as an Exclusive Right to Sell Listing, the property owner appoints a real estate broker for a set period of time as an exclusive agent to sell the property, and agrees to pay the listing broker a commission if and when the property is sold, regardless of whether the broker or the homeowner caused the sale.
Federal Trade Commission, MiRealSource settlement release, 2007
Under an Exclusive Agency Listing agreement, the listing broker often charges an up-front fee, but may receive a reduced commission, or no commission at all if the owner sells the property without the broker's further help.
Federal Trade Commission, release on real estate groups and exclusive agency listings, 2006
| Question | Exclusive right to sell | Exclusive agency |
|---|---|---|
| Who is the owner's exclusive agent? | The listing broker, for a set period | The listing broker |
| The owner finds the buyer without the broker's further help | The commission is payable when the property sells, whether the broker or the owner caused the sale | The broker may receive a reduced commission, or none |
| Anything charged up front? | Not addressed in the FTC description | The broker often charges an up-front fee |
The traditional form is defined on its own under exclusive right to sell. Nothing on this page says which form, or which terms, any particular office uses. The draft in front of you is what shows that.
If a neighbor has already asked, raise it while the agreement is still a draft
The decision is easiest before the signature, because a draft can still reflect whatever the owner and the licensee agree to.
Name the neighbor at the start
Say who has asked, and roughly when, in the first conversation about listing. A term nobody raised cannot end up in the paper.
Find the fee terms for your own sale
Look for where the draft says how and when the fee is paid, and whether anything changes if you produce the buyer yourself.
Keep what is agreed on the page
Virginia requires the other terms the client and licensee agreed to be included in the agreement, so whatever is settled about the neighbor belongs there, beside the fee.
Check the end date
Every brokerage agreement needs a definite termination date, and one that names none ends 90 days after the date of the agreement. Whether the draft says anything about a sale that closes after it ends is for the draft to show.
An agreement already signed is read by an attorney, not by a page like this one. Listing itself still runs the same five steps as every listing, set out on selling your land; the neighbor question changes a clause, not the process.
A neighbor's written offer reaches you the same way a stranger's does
Once the tract is listed, a neighbor who wants it is a buyer, and the rule for written offers does not care how close the buyer lives.
Under 18VAC135-20-300, a licensee who fails to tender promptly to the client every written offer, every written counteroffer and every written rejection obtained on the property commits a misrepresentation or omission. A written offer from next door comes to you promptly, the same as one from the other end of the state.
Before offering, a neighbor may want to walk the back field they have looked at over the fence for years. Permission for that comes from the owner through the listing agent, as walking land before making an offer explains. If the neighbor wants only a strip or a corner rather than the whole tract, the plat, the lot line and the deed come first, and that sequence is in how to sell land to a neighbor.
A neighbor has already asked about buying your land?
Say who has asked and when, along with the county and tax map number, so the neighbor is on the table before any agreement is drafted. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
If a neighbor buys after my listing agreement ends, is a commission owed?
The agreement's own terms decide that, and Virginia's brokerage statute does not. What the statute does settle is that every brokerage agreement has a definite termination date, and one that names none ends 90 days after the date of the agreement. Whether the paper says anything about a later sale to someone who came along during the listing is for the draft to show, and for an attorney to read once it is signed.
Will I see a neighbor's offer even if it is low?
A written one, yes. Under 18VAC135-20-300, a licensee's failure to tender promptly every written offer, counteroffer and rejection obtained on the property is a misrepresentation or omission. The size of the offer does not change that. What you do with a low written offer from the owner next door is your decision, made with the facts about your land in front of you.
Does the FTC description mean I always owe a commission on my own sale?
No. The Federal Trade Commission described the traditional exclusive right to sell form, where the commission is payable regardless of whether the broker or the homeowner caused the sale, and it described exclusive agency as a form where the owner's own sale may carry a reduced commission or none. Those are descriptions of forms, not rules. Your signed agreement's words govern, and an attorney reads them.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 54.1-2137, brokerage agreements: writing, termination date and required terms Virginia General Assembly
- 18VAC135-20-300, misrepresentation and omission, including failing to tender offers Virginia Real Estate Board
- MiRealSource Settles Charges it Illegally Restrained Competition (press release, February 2007), describing Exclusive Right to Sell and Exclusive Agency listings Federal Trade Commission
- FTC Charges Real Estate Groups with Anticompetitive Conduct in Limiting Consumers' Choice in Real Estate Services (press release, October 2006), describing Exclusive Agency listings Federal Trade Commission