Open Listing in Real Estate: Why NYC Sales Rarely Use One
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An open listing lets you work with several brokers at once, non-exclusively, and you pay commission only to whoever finds the buyer. It’s legal, but in NYC, REBNY’s Residential Listing Service (RLS) is built around exclusive listings, which keeps true open listings out of the system most of the time, even though roughly 91% of agent-assisted buyers search.
No broker owns the sale until somebody actually makes it.
What an open listing actually is
An open listing means you haven’t committed exclusively to any single brokerage. Multiple brokers can market your home at once, and you can even sell it yourself, FSBO-style, while it’s still technically listed. Whoever actually produces the buyer gets the commission. Every other broker who was also marketing the home gets nothing for their effort, since there’s no split to divide among them.
| Listing type | Who can market it | When you owe a commission |
|---|---|---|
| Open listing | Multiple brokers, plus you | Only to whoever finds the buyer |
| Exclusive right to sell | One broker only | Even if you find the buyer yourself |
| Exclusive agency | One broker, plus you | Only if the broker, not you, finds the buyer |
Compare an open listing to an exclusive right-to-sell listing. There, one broker handles the listing, and you owe that broker a commission even if you find the buyer independently. An exclusive agency listing is the middle ground. One brokerage handles marketing, but you can still sell on your own and owe no commission if you do.
Why NYC sales rarely use one
The system most of the market runs on doesn’t really allow it. REBNY’s Residential Listing Service is the database most NYC brokerages and agents use to show buyers available inventory. It’s built around sharing exclusive listings among member firms.
A true open listing structurally falls outside what the RLS is designed to carry. That means your home, marketed as an open listing, is largely invisible to the agents and buyers searching the system most NYC transactions flow through.
That’s a very different problem from “agents just don’t love open listings,” which is how you’ll see it framed elsewhere. It’s closer to a structural mismatch between how the market’s main listing system works and what an open listing actually is.
That doesn’t make an open listing illegal or impossible. Some brokerages will still take one, particularly smaller or boutique firms, and it remains far more common in NYC rentals than in home sales. But if you expect it to get the same visibility as an exclusive RLS listing, think again. You’re working against how the market’s main pipe is actually built.
When an open listing can still make sense
Mostly when speed matters more than broker enthusiasm. You might consider an open listing during a genuine emergency sell-off. Divorce and estate sales after a death in the family are the two most common reasons.
In either case, you want maximum awareness fast and are willing to trade broker commitment for reach. It also appeals to sellers actively weighing an FSBO sale who want a backstop of broker interest, without giving up the option to sell independently.
You’ll usually get better service with an exclusive arrangement instead. An exclusive agent has a real financial stake in marketing your home well, since they’re guaranteed the commission if it sells during the listing term.
An open-listing agent competes with several others, including your own FSBO effort. That agent has less incentive to invest heavily in a home that might sell out from under them.
NestApple itself has seen what happens when one agent effectively controls all the exposure on a listing. In one case, a broker simply never passed along a genuine $5.3 million offer to the seller. The broker decided, on their own, that it wasn’t worth relaying. Run your own numbers with NestApple’s closing costs calculator before you decide which listing structure actually serves you.
If you’re deciding between an open listing, an exclusive agreement, or selling FSBO entirely, our selling & commissions hub walks through every path together.
If you’re buying with NestApple regardless of how a given listing is structured, our buyer rebate applies the same way either way.
Common questions
What is an open listing in real estate? A non-exclusive listing arrangement where you can work with multiple brokers at once, or sell independently. You pay a commission only to whoever actually finds the buyer.
Does REBNY allow open listings in NYC home sales? REBNY’s RLS, the database most NYC brokerages search, is built around sharing exclusive listings, which structurally excludes true open listings from that system. As a result, open listings remain legal but are rare in NYC sales and more common in rentals.
How is an open listing different from an exclusive right to sell? With an exclusive right to sell, the seller owes commission to one broker even if the seller finds the buyer themselves. With an open listing, no broker is guaranteed anything, and the seller can sell independently without owing a commission at all.
Why don’t more agents want to take an open listing? Beyond the RLS exclusion issue, agents compete with other brokers and the seller’s potential FSBO sale for a commission that isn’t guaranteed, which reduces the incentive to invest heavily in marketing.
When does an open listing make sense for a seller? Mainly when speed and maximum exposure matter more than having one agent fully committed, such as a time-sensitive sale during a divorce or after inheriting a property that needs to move quickly.
Nicole Fishman Benoliel co-founded NestApple in 2017. She's a lawyer admitted to the New York bar - her law degree is from La Escuela Libre de Derecho in Costa Rica, with further study at IE Business School in Madrid and an LLM from Fordham in New York. She does not act in a legal capacity at NestApple; every client is referred to an attorney who handles real estate deals full time.
