Agency and brokerage of real assets in competitive equilibrium

Brokerage contracts for many categories of real assets are characterizedby a common, constant commission rate payable upon sale, exclusiveagency, and contractual asking prices. For a large market insteady state, these conventional contracts produce in equilibriumno agency problem between a broker and his clients. Each brokerspends the same time or effort selling each client's asset asthe broker would spend on his own assets. As in standard agencyproblems, extra effort by a broker generates first-order stochasticallydominant distributions of bids by potential buyers. Unlike standardagency problems, each broker can allocate his time or effortbetween selling the assets of his multiple clients and searchingfor new clients in competition with other brokers. Because brokers'time spent searching for new sellers is dissipative, entry bybrokers is excessive in equilibrium.