sickwilly 37 Report post Posted April 16, 2012 I'm not asking for or expecting legal advice here. I'm interested in other members' experiences in terminating a contract with a realtor.Our situation - We have had our place on the market for the better part of the year and have had zero offers and not much activity from the time that the realtor has worked with us. We have followed the Realtor's advice and have agreed with her suggestions on price and a price reduction. She feels that the property is priced right in our market. At the moment, there is nobody seriously interested in the place. My wife and I both think that the realtor has been okay, but not outstanding.We have a friend that is going through a divorce. She is very interested in leasing our property for a year, and perhaps buying it sometime later down the line. The realtor had absolutely nothing to do with this friend's interest in renting or possibly buying the property after a while.My thinking was that we ask the realtor to release us from our contract and take the property off the market. We might go with her again in the future if our friend doesn't want to buy the place.Has anybody been in a situation like this? If so, I'd be interested in hearing how it worked out and what you were/weren't able to do with the realtor/contract.Thanks in advance for any input. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apes44 7 Report post Posted April 16, 2012 its my understandign that you are not required to sell the house and can change your mind (unless that its somewhere in the contract) and if she is leasing it from you, then you are not selling the home so she isnt losing a commission or anything off of the "sale". that said she probably wont be happy because all the work she has done until now has been for not. just be honest with her and say you decided you no longer want to sell Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sickwilly 37 Report post Posted April 16, 2012 We've let the realtor know that we have the possibility of the serious, long-term renter. The property has been in her hands with no offers for about 8 months. With no real prospects on the horizon, I think we need to take the rental. I'm hoping that taking the property off the market and getting released from the contract won't be a huge issue. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chippa13 1844 Report post Posted April 17, 2012 That shouldn't be a huge issue. The sticky situation may come if the renter buys from you in a year. The realtor might try to come back at you for that claiming that you rented out for a year to get around the commission. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wrangler 157 Report post Posted April 17, 2012 Contract terms and realtor attitudes vary, so the experiences of others may be useless to you. When you want to get out of a contract, you have to start by reviewing the provisions of your contract, and we haven't seen them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chadd 916 Report post Posted April 18, 2012 That shouldn't be a huge issue. The sticky situation may come if the renter buys from you in a year. The realtor might try to come back at you for that claiming that you rented out for a year to get around the commission.Unless the house has an extremely high value, it wouldn't be worth the potential legal battle for the realtor. Lost time and costs could be pretty significant, and the realtor would still probably lose. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sickwilly 37 Report post Posted April 18, 2012 Didn't think anyone would want to be bored with the fine print/details (but you're absolutely right, Wrangler). I think and hope that the realtor will have a reasonable attitude. @Chadd, the commission and headache might not be worth her time... plus she wound up making a pretty nice commission (for our area) when we bought this house... (right before we listed ours). We already wanted the place and knew the couple selling. It was listed for about a week and she didn't have to split fee with another realtor. I am worried about the realtor doing what you mentioned, Chippa.... but my feeling is that she wouldn't. Plus she had zero to do with bringing us the rental or the other person's possible interest. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chadd 916 Report post Posted April 18, 2012 That sounds like the situation when we bought this house. We went to an open house and decided we were interested. We used the sellers realtor and he ended up throwing some of his fee back into the closing costs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sickwilly 37 Report post Posted April 18, 2012 She certainly didn't throw any fees back our way to help... but I guess she wasn't obligated to. Thanks for the input so far, guys. It has helped ease my mind a bit. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Axxion89 32 Report post Posted April 18, 2012 As Wrangler said, look at the contract to help base your decision. If you are protected then I see no reason why you should feel worried about terminating her agreement to pursue a renter she had no part recruiting. If that person ends up buying the house, again, she had nothing to do with it. Internally she might be a little mad that she lost out on commission but at the end of the day, she had a year to sell the house and assuming the price of the house was competitive for the area and its condition, I see no reason why she should feel any sort of anger for failing to sell the house in a year.At the end of the day, do what's best for you and your family. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
