Listing Ownership: Whose Grass Is It Anyways?

"Who owns the listing?" appears to be a never-ending debate in real estate, despite a recent court case that certified the broker owns the listing and the MLS can protect it. Somehow there remains this belief among some incredibly intelligent people in the industry that real estate agents do the work, so they own the listing content.

They do not. This has never been the case, and unless an agent becomes a broker/owner, it never will be. A listing was, is and will be owned by the broker/owner and not the agent.

Whose grass is it?

Think about your grass. You hire a landscaper to come and cut your grass. The landscaper takes care of your grass. He weeds your grass, he waters your grass, he fertilizes your grass, and then he cuts your grass and hauls away the clippings. Your landscaper does 100% of the maintenance and care of your grass.

Real estate agents do exactly the same thing. Instead of grass, they cultivate ongoing relationships with clients that they often brought to the brokerage (watering, fertilizing and weeding) and secure the listing of these clients and close these deals (cutting the grass and hauling away the clippings).

Both the landscaper and the real estate agent are independent contractors. But does anyone ever say that the landscaper owns the grass? The real estate agent may have done 100% of the care and feeding of their clients, but they do not own the listing that this relationship produces.