The RE-16, section by section

Idaho Seller Representation Agreement. The listing agreement, in plain English, written for the table it gets signed at and for the call three weeks later asking what something meant.

Start with the eleven decisions. They are the seller's to make, none of them fill themselves in, and they decide what we are actually allowed to do with the house.

Paired with the RE-14, the buyer side of the same conversation, and with the RE-21, where Section 39 confirms what both of them established.

Agent training for Real Estate Two70. This summarizes the form and does not replace it. The form controls. Legal questions go to the client's attorney.

11

Decisions that belong to the seller.

Not to you, and not to the printed form. Eleven places where this agreement stops describing the deal and starts asking the seller a question, and every one of them changes what we are actually allowed to do with their house.

Two of them are initials. Eight are yes or no. One is an election between two boxes with nothing printed behind it. None of them have a default that fills itself in, which means an unmarked one is not a neutral outcome. It is the marketing plan we just pitched, quietly missing a piece.

Read all eleven out loud at the table. It takes about four minutes and it is the part of the listing appointment clients remember, because almost nobody does it.

Section 13, the MLS. Initials.
Present or absent. There is no yes box, so an unsigned Section 13 is a listing that does not go in the MLS, and that is not how anyone will read it three weeks later.
Section 14, the lockbox. Initials.
This is the one that means people are in their home when they are not. Have the valuables, firearms, medication and mail conversation here, at the table, before the box goes on the door.
Section 15, the automated value estimate. Yes or no.
Whether an online value estimate can sit on their listing. Sellers have opinions about this one and are rarely asked.
Section 15, blogging and public comments. Yes or no.
A separate question with a separate answer. It is printed next to the first one, which is exactly why it gets skipped.
Section 16, listing documents and information online. Yes or no.
The first of six advertising lines, each answered on its own.
Section 16, the address online. Yes or no.
A no here changes how the listing syndicates, and the person building the microsite needs to know before they build it.
Section 16, print advertising. Yes or no.
Section 16, other media. Yes or no.
Section 16, a broker sign on the property. Yes or no.
Covenants, an HOA or a corner lot can make this a real conversation rather than a formality.
Section 16, photography and video, including drone. Yes or no.
Everything our media work does runs through this line. A no, or a blank, and the shoot we scheduled is not authorized. Whoever is driving out to shoot it needs the answer before they load the car.
Section 21, the agency election. One box.
Either our buyer clients can be introduced to this property, with limited dual agency or assigned agency if one of them writes, or they cannot and we stay single agency. There is no default, no third option, and no way to leave it for later. This is the one a broker review should catch every single time.

Why an unmarked box is worse than a no

A seller who says no to drone footage has made a decision, and we build the marketing around it. A seller who left the line blank has made no decision, and now nobody knows whether the shoot was authorized, including the seller. The first is a constraint. The second is an argument waiting for the day the photos go live.

Section 6, and the three numbers in it that bite

Broker pay is not set by law and it is negotiable. The form says so in its own opening line, and saying it out loud first is what makes the rest of the conversation easy.

The sale fee itself is the part sellers expect and the part they ask about. It is not the part that causes problems. Three other numbers in the same section are the ones that show up months later, and two of them do damage specifically when the blank is left empty.

The protection period, and its 90 day default
A buyer who saw the property or was introduced to it during the term, who then buys, leases, exchanges or options it within this window after the agreement ends, can still trigger the fee. If the blank is empty the form uses 90 days, so leaving it alone does not switch the clause off, it just sets it to three months without anyone deciding to. Write the number you actually agreed to. It does not apply if the seller signs a new seller representation agreement with another broker.
The cancellation fee
If the seller ends the agreement early, the form may treat that as wrongful interference with the brokerage's work, and a cancellation fee may be owed where we have not already been paid under the sale or lease provisions. The amount comes from the blanks. A seller who wants out and discovers this for the first time on the way out is a complaint, whatever the paperwork says. Cover it at the table, in one sentence, and it never becomes one.
The cooperating brokerage amount
What is offered to the brokerage working with the buyer. A later purchase agreement can set a different amount, and that later agreement controls for that transaction only. Unless the parties agree otherwise in writing, a reduction in the cooperating amount benefits the seller. That does not apply when the buyer is unrepresented, in which case the brokerage may receive the full fee.
And the lease fee, on any property that might rent instead
Based on base rent, a number of months of rent, or a flat amount. If a lease becomes a lease to own and the tenant buys, the sale fee may also apply. Worth filling on anything that could plausibly be leased rather than left for the day the seller asks about it.

Where this meets the offer

Section 20 of the RE-21 is where compensation actually gets settled on a live transaction, and it can differ from what is written here. On the listing side that means reading the accepted offer back against this section before you tell the seller what they are netting. On the buyer side it means the same reconciliation against the signed RE-14. Either way it is a two minute check, and it is the difference between a net sheet the seller trusts and one they find an error in.

The same conversation from the buyer side.

What gets signed, and when

Order is the whole point. Every one of these documents confirms something that was already true when it was signed, and a document signed out of order does not reach back and fix the gap it was supposed to close.

1
Agency Disclosure Brochure
Given and acknowledged before representation starts. The RE-16 then carries the client's confirmation that they received it and understood it.
2
The seller representation agreement, this form
Signed before we act as their agent, not after we have already been doing it. This is the document that makes the relationship exclusive and sets what we get paid.
3
Section 21, the agency election
Part of this same form, and it is a required choice with no printed default. Idaho Code 54-2088 lets a brokerage represent both sides only as a limited dual agent, and only with the express written consent of every client involved, signed before the brokerage starts acting that way.
4
The RE-21, Section 39
The purchase agreement confirms who represents whom. It confirms a relationship that already exists in the paperwork above. It does not create one, and checking a box there does not cure a consent that was never signed.

The failure this prevents

A file where Section 39 of the offer is checked for limited dual agency and there is no signed consent behind it. The box is not the consent. The consent is signed first, on this form, or it does not exist. That is the single most common defect in an in house transaction, and it is entirely preventable at the table where this form gets signed.

Read Section 39 on the RE-21 page, or open the RE-14, the buyer side of the same conversation.

Before it gets signed

In the order the form is filled out. These are the blanks and boxes where the printed default, or the absence of one, does real damage. It saves as you tick, so you can work it on a live listing appointment.

Every section, explained

All 39, in order, plus the signature block. Written for the moment a seller is on the phone asking what something means. Search below, or scroll.

Words the form uses

Plain meanings, for reading the form out loud with a client sitting next to you.

Broker
The real estate company the seller hires to help sell, lease or exchange the property. Here, Real Estate Two70.
Agent
The licensee working for the brokerage. Here, whoever is servicing the listing.
MLS
Multiple Listing Service. The listing database real estate professionals use, and the source most public search sites pull from.
Earnest money
Money a buyer deposits to show they are serious about buying.
Title
Legal ownership of the property.
Lien
A claim against the property, usually from a loan or an unpaid debt.
Encumbrance
A claim, right or limit affecting the property, such as a lien or an easement.
Limited dual agency
One brokerage involved with both the seller and the buyer in the same transaction, unable to advocate for either against the other, and unable to share one side's private information with the other.
Assigned agency
Limited dual agency where the broker assigns one agent to the seller and a different agent to the buyer. The supervising broker still carries the limited dual duties.
Protection period
The window after the agreement ends during which a buyer introduced to the property during the term can still trigger the fee. 90 days if the blank is empty.
Cooperating brokerage
The brokerage working with the buyer, sometimes called the selling brokerage, and the one that receives a share of the fee.
Target housing
The federal lead based paint category, which generally means residential built before 1978.
Interpleader
Handing disputed money to a court and letting the court decide who gets it. Nobody wins one.
Force majeure
A major event outside a party's control, such as a flood or an epidemic, which excuses a missed deadline caused by it.
Marketable and insurable
Title clean enough to sell and good enough for a title company to insure, subject to ordinary recorded limits such as easements and zoning.

Internal training material for licensees of Real Estate Two70. Not legal advice, and it does not replace the form, which controls. Legal, tax and title questions go to the client's own licensed professional.