What Should You Expect From Your Realtor When Selling in Missouri?

Decide What Your Missouri Listing Agreement Allows

Certainty starts with the paper you sign. Missouri decides what goes in it. Before a broker lists your house as your seller's agent, section 339.780 of the state's statutes requires a written agency agreement with you. It has to include the agent's duties under section 339.730 and the terms of compensation.

The Missouri Real Estate Commission's rule, 20 CSR 2250-8.090, names 14 items every written seller's agency listing agreement must contain. Two are numbers: the price, and the commission to be paid, bonuses included. Two are dates. A definite beginning date. An expiration date.

Two more decide whether your agent can work both sides of your sale. The agreement has to say whether the broker or agent may act as a disclosed dual agent, representing you and the buyer, and whether they may act as a transaction broker, helping both of you without representing either. Missouri allows dual agency only with the consent of all parties to the sale, under section 339.750.

If your agent also helps the buyer, section 339.710 makes them a transaction broker by default, not a dual agent, as long as you and the buyer are told right away and it's confirmed in writing before the contract is signed. If you want your agent working for you alone, those two lines are where you say no. Saying no has a cost. If you haven't agreed to the switch to transaction broker, section 339.755 lets the agent withdraw from representing you in that sale, without liability.

The paper protects you twice. No clause in it can make you give the broker notice that you're canceling after the expiration date. And the licensee has to hand you a legible copy when you sign.

Before you sign, read the dates and the two lines on working both sides.

Hold Your Agent to the Duties in Section 339.730

Sign with a broker as your seller's agent, and section 339.730 of Missouri's statutes sets what that agent owes you.

Start with offers. Under section 339.730 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri, your seller's agent must present all written offers to and from you in a timely manner, even if your house is already under a contract for sale.

The same list carries more. Your agent has to disclose to you all adverse material facts they actually know or should have known. Section 339.710 defines one as a fact related to the property, not reasonably ascertainable or known to a party, that negatively affects its value. If they know about a material matter but its specifics are beyond their expertise, they have to tell you to get expert advice. And they have to account in a timely manner for all money and property they receive.

The same section also sets a limit. While your house is under a contract for sale, your agent doesn't have to look for more offers. If you want more offers coming in anyway, write that into the agreement. Section 339.780 says nothing in it stops you from signing a written contract with a broker that adds duties beyond the ones it specifies. And the first duty section 339.730 lists is performing the terms of your written agreement.

The price is your call. The statute has your agent seek a price and terms acceptable to you. Our view: set that price from homes that sold in the same condition as yours, not from fixed-up homes yours doesn't match. We read days on market as the market's verdict on your price against the homes buyers pick instead. Showings without offers tell us buyers see a price that doesn't fit the condition in front of them. If the price has to come down, we think the case for it should be as-is sales, shown to you up front.

List With a Missouri Agent, or Take One of Two Offers

Your choice comes down to how you want to sell and what you want to receive. Cash Flow Deals puts the Fast Cash Offer and the Premium Cash Offer together so you can compare them and choose. Take 10 to 15 minutes, or whatever time you need, to review what each means for you.

With the Fast Cash Offer, Cash Flow Deals buys your Missouri house as-is and closes. Our team walks through once, and you have no repairs to make. With the Premium Cash Offer, a pre-approved FHA or conventional buyer we already have, ready to go, pays more and buys directly from you. You sign with us at a number you agree to and give us permission to bring that buyer in our place. The buyer signs a new contract directly with you. Their lender funds the purchase, and title passes once, straight from you to the buyer. We're paid as a separate line item on the closing statement.

We cover repair costs, and we figure out a way, so nothing comes out of your pocket. On Premium, only what the buyer's lender requires gets fixed, with repair costs settled from the sale proceeds out of our share. On Fast Cash, we buy as-is. For either offer, the number is agreed before any work starts, and it changes only if you agree. The one exception: if something structural surfaces that was not visible or disclosed before we signed — foundation issues, hidden moisture, old wiring, cast-iron drain failure — we re-cost it and bring the number back to you. You decide. You can walk away. We disclose what we know at offer time so this almost never happens.

If the buyer's loan falls through, that is our problem, not yours, and you can still take the Fast Cash Offer at its own number. The Fast Cash Offer has an inspection period of 15 business days. The existing closing window is 45 days or less, on a date you help pick; review the written timing for the offer you choose.