Brokerage Agreement & Exclusive Mandate (Word draft)

Every agent has taken the call: the deal is agreed, the registry is next week, and the client asks whether you can "adjust" your fee. The mistake happened months earlier, when nothing was written down.

This is the document that prevents it. The fee, what triggers it, what it covers, and — the part most brokerage agreements omit — what you are actually committing to do in return.

That last section is what makes an exclusive mandate reasonable rather than a favour. An agent asking for exclusivity while promising nothing specific should expect to be refused; an agent who puts photography, promotion, a property page and a weekly written update in writing usually gets it.

What is in the file

• Parties, the property, and the scope — sale or letting, exclusive or open
• The fee: percentage or amount, from which side, what triggers it, and when it is payable
• GST and TDS treatment stated on the face of the agreement
• A marketing commitment schedule — what the agent will actually deliver, with a weekly update day
• Term, review point, and a termination right if the commitments are not met
• A protection period clause, drafted narrowly to registered introductions only
• Co-broking, confidentiality and the client's own obligations

Sign it at the listing meeting

Not later. Fees raised at closing get negotiated hard, because by then the client knows you have too much invested to walk away. At the first meeting the same number is simply a term of business.

Fill in the marketing schedule properly

This is what you are trading for exclusivity, and vague commitments are worth nothing to either side. Photography, video, a property page, a defined promotion budget, portal listings, and a written update on a fixed day every week.

Then keep to it. Sellers do not leave agents who are performing badly — they leave agents who go quiet.

Keep the protection period narrow

A protection clause should cover buyers you actually introduced and named in writing, for a limited period. Broad wording that claims a fee on any sale to anyone for a year after termination is the clause that gets agents into disputes, and a client's lawyer will strike it out anyway.

Include the termination right

If you do not do what you promised, the client can walk. Offering that clause unprompted is the single most persuasive thing in the document — an agent confident in their process has no reason to resist it.

Questions

This is a working template, not legal, tax or financial advice. Requirements differ by state and by transaction — have a lawyer and a chartered accountant confirm anything that matters before you or a client rely on it.