If a seller dies after a listing agreement is signed, what happens to the agency?

When a seller dies after a listing agreement has been signed, the agency automatically terminates due to the death of the principal. This principle is grounded in agency law, which stipulates that an agency relationship is fundamentally tied to the principal's existence. When the principal, in this case, the seller, passes away, the agency relationship ceases to exist.

The reasoning here is that the agreement was made between the agent and the seller, and without the seller, there is no longer anyone to uphold the terms of that agreement. This means that the real estate agent can no longer act on behalf of the seller, as the seller is the individual who granted authority to the agent in the first place.

While heirs or successors may have an interest in the property, they may not have assumed the responsibilities or rights related to the listing agreement unless explicitly stated in a different agreement. Therefore, the correct understanding is that the death of the seller automatically ends the agency relationship.