Real Estate Question - Seller's Rights

[Wish Upon A Star]

Real Estate Contracts:

If you sign for 6 months with a Realtor, and withdraw your house from the market for whatever reason, you cannot sell it with another company until after the 6 month time period expires.

BUT, can you sell it on your own during that time?

 

[jel0511]

Not without having to pay the original realtor the commission that is in the sale agreement.

 

[Wish Upon A Star]

Geeze, that stinks . . .

Our agent is really terrible . . . I'm having a hard time keeping her . . .

One night we came home and found all our furniture arranged with a note from her saying it was "Feng Shui" or something like that . . .we were a little p'o'd

 

[Lisa F]

Not unless the contract says you can. When my parents put their home on the market, they had a few bites from neighbors who were interested. My parents had to specifically exclude them from the contract with their realtor.

Basically this protects the realtor from doing all of the work marketing it, fronting the expense to put it on the MLS etc and then having the seller and buyer make their own deal, cutting out the realtor (and their commission) out of it. It doesn't sound like you are doing that but I believe the part of the contract that protects a realtor from this also prohibits you from selling the house yourself. If you haven't yet signed a contract you could have a contingency about what happens if you find your own buyer. Also, be careful that after your contract with this realtor expires there is not some further period where the realtor gets commission from any sales (many contracts do this for the above reason as well, people will just wait for their contract to expire in order to cut the realtor out.)

 

[phorsenuf]

Check the contract. in ours where I used to work even if you sold if by owner we could still collect commission, especially if it ended up to be people that had originally seen the house thru the RE company. Read your contract very carefully!!

 

[jel0511]

Originally posted by Wish Upon A Star
Geeze, that stinks . . .

Our agent is really terrible . . . I'm having a hard time keeping her . . .

One night we came home and found all our furniture arranged with a note from her saying it was "Feng Shui" or something like that . . .we were a little p'o'd

Now, that is completly out of line IMO. I'd call the General Manager of the Real Estate office and complain. That is going too far, and moving your things without your permission. Geez....

 

[kadaten]

Originally posted by Wish Upon A Star
Real Estate Contracts:

If you sign for 6 months with a Realtor, and withdraw your house from the market for whatever reason, you cannot sell it with another company until after the 6 month time period expires.

BUT, can you sell it on your own during that time?

Uh, I never sign for more than 30 days. That way if it's not working out, I can find another agent who can get the job done. We're in the military and have to move when we're told to move and don't have time (or sometimes even the notice!) to let our house sit on the market for six months!

And the buyer's agent we used, we only signed a one-day contract that self-renewed for any house we saw with her. (So if we found something on our own, we were free to do it on our own.) This was actually her idea. If we didn't like working with her for any reason, she wanted us to be able to go elsewhere. She was truly in it for us, just as much as for her commission. (So if we found something on our own, we were free to do it on our own.)

As for your question...no, I don't think you can sell it without avoiding the commission. And I KNOW you can't avoid it if it sells to someone who saw the house while it was listed with the Realtor, even if it's sold after the listing period is over.

 

[Christine]

I agree with all that has been said; however, I think that there must be something that you can do, as the seller, to get out of a contract with an offending agent. I'm hoping that there is something in the contract that protects you agains this annoying realtor. I'd be pretty mad about the furniture movement.

 

[Robinrs]

Originally posted by Wish Upon A Star
Geeze, that stinks . . .

Our agent is really terrible . . . I'm having a hard time keeping her . . .

One night we came home and found all our furniture arranged with a note from her saying it was "Feng Shui" or something like that . . .we were a little p'o'd

Report this to your State's Real Estate Commission. She should be reprimanded for this.

She can suggest changes in your home but to physically do them... NO!

Robinrs

 

[Toby'sFriend]

oh I've been there.
Live and Learn. I will never again sign a 6 month contract with a Realtor. With one of our house sales we had a lovely lady who disappeared on a 3 week vacation the day after we signed the contract. Funny, nothing was mentioned the night before when she sat in our kitchen and signed the papers with us.

When she returned she ran a lovely ad in the local Monthly real estate paper - with a picture of our neighbors house.
I swear I was on the phone with the Broker who owned the agency every morning griping about something. Is our house in MLS yet? why hasn't a sign been put in our yard, etc etc etc

She was lucky that one of the other associates in her firm sold our house the next weekend. Because I was ready to whup her butt.

 

[Disney Doll]

My DH is a realtor, and beofre this turns into a realtor-bashing thread (I can see the writing on the wall! ), may I just add that there are good and bad in EVERY profession.

To the OP, if you are that dissatisfied with your realtor, my suggestion is to set up a meeting between her and her office sales manager...the person who is her boss. If you desire to get out of the contract, there is usually a way to do it. A good sales manager is not going to want an unhappy customer working with their agency for 6 months, being constantly aggravated etc. This meeting will accomplish several things:
1. It will put the realtor and the company on notice that you will not be "trifled" with
2. It will make the manager aware that there is a situation that needs closer monitoring
3. It will get you out of the contract with the unacceptable realtor, if that's what you really want once the meeting is over

If you get no satisfaction after meeting with the sales manager, then my next suggestion is to contact the local Board of Realtors, wich oversees activity in your area. There are also state agencies that govern realtors, but if you go up the "chain of command" you build a stronger case IMHO. My guess is that if the manager is a person of integrity (and contrary to popular belief, there are many people of integrity in real estate but like evrything else, we only hear about the bad), you will be satisfied with the outcome after speaking to that person, and not need to take it farther.

 

[Wish Upon A Star]

Thanks.

I just finished emailing the President and CEO of that company telling them of the problems and asking for a release of contract.

I'm hoping to get some kind of response . . .

 

[Talking Hands]

Sending an email to to President of the company may get you no where. See the manager of that particular branch. The contract is not owned by the realtor but by the realty company or broker. The branch manager can with sufficient reason put another realtor on your case. How the commission is doled out will be within the office but will not cost you any more than already stated in your contract.
One reason my husband works with a partner on all contracts is to make sure at least one of them is available if the other needs to go out of town. (no I am not his partner in this case, and yes I do have my license) Not a bad idea in my opinion. Most of the realtors in the office do the same.

 

[tar heel]

I don't think you are very likely to get out of the contract but you might get a different realtor from the company assigned to you. When we sold our last home, I signed a three-month contract (would never do longer) with a very nice woman from our church. She neglected to tell me, however, that she was thinking about switching agencies. When she did less than two weeks later, the owner of her old firm came out to explain to us that the contract was with their firm not the realtor and that he personally would do everything possible to see that we were well taken care of, but that he was not cancelling the contract. I ultimately was not happy with the service and became a demanding, complaining customer. When the three months was up, he showed up at our house with a new contract with them and an offer on our house. I refused to sign the contract as it was and ended up signing one valid for one week. We ended up with that buyer, though.

At closing, they were both there with their hands out waiting for commission -- the original realtor (who got the commission on our new house through her old agency) and the owner of the real estate firm who collected commissions from both houses and was listed as the selling agent.

Ironically, the agency owner and his wife built a house in our new neighborhood on our street. Whenever one of my kids has something to sell, I send them there and they buy the smallest thing -- and he personally collected over $10,000 on our two houses.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Two nights ago I signed a 4-month agreement with a realtor. Signed a contract today!! He said basically the same thing. I couldn't do it for a 4-month period if I were to cancel in advance unless he's paid I suppose.

 

[castlegazer]

Originally posted by kadaten
As for your question...no, I don't think you can sell it without avoiding the commission. And I KNOW you can't avoid it if it sells to someone who saw the house while it was listed with the Realtor, even if it's sold after the listing period is over.

This is the case even without a contract, its a threshold law in most states.