Co-Listing Strategies: Better Transaction Outcomes?

A co-listing strategy exists when two or more listing agents jointly represent the owner of a property who desires to sell it. This strategy is not new in the real estate brokerage industry, but its popularity has increased during recent years with the formation of teams of agents who repeatedly work together using the co-listing strategy. To date, the literature has not analyzed this business strategy. This study investigates the probability of selling, selling price, and time on market effects related to the use of the co-listing strategy. The results of this study indicate that co-listing is associated with a higher probability of sale, an increased selling price, and a marginal longer or shorter marketing time, depending on the situation. Comparing market outcomes for agents who form teams and repeatedly employ the co-listing strategy against market outcomes for agents who are involved in only one co-listing indicates that both types of co-listing produce higher prices and are more likely to result in a sale, but the effects for repeated co-listings are larger in magnitude. Additionally, repeated co-listing slightly reduces marketing time, but single co-listing slightly increases marketing time. The marketing time effects in both repeated and single co-listings, however, are too small to be economically important. In general, this study suggests that sellers are better served by the co-listing strategy compared to no co-listing, especially when the co-listing agents repeatedly work together in teams.