Listing Agent FAQ’s

Agents are regularly looking for a way to differentiate themselves. At SparkOffer, we believe that our tools give agents the power to be the closers of the 21st century. Consumers are used to getting more transparency on everything they do today, but not in real estate. Agents that become part of SparkOffer and use our transparent platform are able to differentiate themselves in the market and win more listings.

Absolutely. Properties on SparkOffer are listed by agents with their standard local listing forms. SparkOffer is not a part of your listing or your commission. We have a simple one page form that is signed by your seller, giving permission for their property to be on SparkOffer.

We encourage agents and sellers to set clear rules of participation, because buyers want to openly compete on clear terms. However, we realize that sellers and their agents want the latitude of not always selling to the highest bidder. So, our Terms of Service allows the seller to choose to accept any offer or no offer at all.

It’s not about “selling” and more about presenting. Buyers want equal opportunity to purchase a home in today’s market, and they are demanding more transparency. Sellers want to maximize their home equity and receive the highest possible offer for their house on their time frame. Many buyers that are winning on SparkOffer today have lost many times previously in closed and back door offer processes with other agents. Sellers that want SparkOffer believe that the best way to get the most for their home is to let competition and market forces work for them.

We all know that syndication of your listings is an important part of your client’s home being found. SparkOffer’s traffic is growing on a daily basis, though most buyers still find homes on one of the big three property portals.

This is where your local expertise and market knowledge come into play. Some properties come on SparkOffer for three days, others seven or longer. Sometimes listing a home means a stampede the day it hits the market, and some take a bit longer to get multiple offers.

We are not a brokerage, so we are not looking for you to join our firm, but we are hoping you join our mission. Any licensed agent with a seller that wants to list on SparkOffer is welcomed.

You arrange showings in whatever manner that you typically use. Some agents strictly use services like ShowingTime and others arrange all their own showings. We are big believers in open houses giving you first hand experience and exposure to the public.

You schedule your appraisals and inspections as you normally would.

We provide you special instructions with the agent remarks for you to use with your MLS. When you put your property on SparkOffer, you want to drive all your offers through the platform to give every buyer the opportunity to buy your new listing.

SparkOffer provides an online platform designed to connect sellers and buyers of residential real estate. It is not a real estate broker or auctioneer. We are not aware of any restrictions or legal impediments regarding the use of such online platforms in any state.

Your property on SparkOffer will have a unique link that you can use on the MLS, your social media, or anywhere you want to post or drive traffic from.

Sure, you simply sign up to get alerts on your listing and you will get the same notifications as the public watching your listing.

We are not responsible for any paperwork in your transaction. We have one form that your seller signs along with your listing agreement to agree to have their home on SparkOffer. The rest of the transaction has the same contracts and paperwork you are accustomed to in your local market. Our main difference is that instead of getting 10, 20, 30 offers that you have to sift through and present, you have a winning bidder and one contract at the end of your Event.

You are responsible for the same paperwork you normally complete in a transaction.

You can add up to 50 documents with a listing on SparkOffer for the public to review. If you would like some of them to be disclosures that are signed, etc. then by all means let’s add them.

Deal terms are 100% up to you and your seller. Imagine that you have one purchase contract with the exact terms that your seller wants to sign. Write those terms down, and they become your deal terms for your Event that all buyers bid against to win. Think of it like a transparent best and final.

Fortunately, you will have a list of qualified buyers that participated in your Event. You can either contact one of them to put in another offer, or we can reoffer your listing in a new Event. It’s up to you.

We are focused on transparency. First, we encourage you to have all buyers participate on SparkOffer. We also encourage agents to tell the buyers that your seller is committed to transparency and their offer will be posted on SparkOffer. Ultimately, if your seller just wants to accept an offer outside of SparkOffer, then that is their choice. Our technology fee simply reverts from the buyer to the seller.

There are no phantom bidders. All bidders are pre-qualified by the listing agent to make sure they meet the criteria set by the agent and seller. Only bidders that have been approved by the agent will be able to place a bid on your listing.