Our Realtor is moving and terminated our contract...

**Suze77** · 08-11-2011, 08:28 AM

Our realtor of 4 months called yesterday and told us she was moving across the country. Coincidentally, it is to the same place she was on vacation for 1.5 weeks after she put our house on the market. We initially went with her because she was listing the house we put an offer to purchase with a contingency in selling our house. The offer to purchase was good for 3 months and we chose not to extend it as we were not having much luck selling ours. We discussed with our realtor a lack of communication and marketing but things did not seem to get better. Meanwhile she was listing big ticket items on Craigslist and had put her own house up for sale at the same time ours went on the market. Once we told her we were not interested in extending the contract on her listing, she asked if we would be interested in checking out another property (which ended up being her own personal residence) while technically we were still under contract with our initial offer to purchase.

Long story short...she has now informed us of her need to move because of her husband relocating for work and said she could get us listed with another realtor. We said no and are now going to rent out our house.

Question is....can we now go directly back to the original house we had the offer on and offer the seller $10000 less than our initial offer (cutting out realtors fees assuming she will also be terminating the contract with them) or is it possible the agent will still be owed a commission? Our contract does state the listing term is extended for a period of one year to protected buyers but not sure if that only pertains to the seller terminating the contract.

I'm not trying to weasel anyone out of money but this realtor has done such a poor job and has known she would be moving since the day she put our house on the market. We were also only given copies of our contract over a month after signing everything and then had to request them when she had forgot them a second time. I am also questioning whether she violated the contract of the the other seller by trying to sell us her house while we were currently under contract with with this other property that she was listing. She also told me the other seller was really upset with us that we weren't extending our offer to purchase because she is in the process of building a condo.

This is our first time in the selling situation and it has been an awful last 4 months. We are now left with lots of questions and lack of trust for anyone dealing in real estate, I think we just got stuck with a real lemon!

**markbrian** · 08-11-2011, 08:44 AM

Not real clear what various contracts you may have signed with this agent, and of course, what the terms of those contracts are. On top of that, the listing contracts or Buyer Agent agreements are often with the agent's company or broker and not with the individual agent. I would suggest reading through the contracts you have signed because they should state how a situation such as this is handled. No legal advice given or intended.

**Suze77** · 08-11-2011, 01:00 PM

Our contract states that even after the contract has ended if the house is sold to a protected buyer the realtor could be owed a commission. So I'm guessing the other seller has the same contract. The realtor actually is the owner and broker of her very small agency. I think she just has her son and maybe another girl working with her.

I still think the fact that she wanted us to look at her own property while we were technically under contract with the other seller is a conflict of interest. Our exclusive right to sell contract states (which I am again assuming is the same as the contract her other client signed): The broker will not place the broker's interests ahead of your interests.

Wouldn't this be enough to make the entire contract void if she is not following it herself?

**Greg** · 08-12-2011, 12:47 PM

Most likely, this listing agent can not terminate your listing agreement without the permission of their broker. So your house could still be listed for sale if the agent's broker did not authorize the termination.

Does your listing agreement say your house is listed with her company and she signed for the company OR does it say you are listed with her?

Your lack of contract knowledge is one reason why you are looking to open a can of worms with your plan to go straight to the other seller. The other reason is your house is priced way too high to sell in this market and the other house is also over priced or they would not have agreed to a contingent sale.