Switched brokerages and old broker won't release my listing

**rivenuru** · 12-22-2010, 10:52 PM

I am in the middle of a big quagmire. My last brokerage was like family, I was one of their top agents, mentor, and all-round go to person. I have a short sale listing that was not set to expire for quite some time, the sellers and I go way back personally. The sellers want to let me service the sale, I have been working on this for 5 months, have lost the last buyer and now need to market and sell the place asap. I had planned on finishing up the sale with the prior buyer and get paid my old split with my former broker. However since I left that company AND no buyer my old broker now is demanding a 25% referral fee and refuses to sign the seller's cancellation notice. The seller is furious that after all the time I have invested in this with them that essentially we are being blackmailed. Doesn't the broker have to honor the cancellation agreement from the seller?

**Greg** · 12-23-2010, 06:47 AM

The seller signed a binding contract with your broker and the seller can not just cancel it.

So, no, the broker does not have "to honor the cancellation agreement from the seller" unless the broker signed the cancellation agreement. Actually, it is only an agreement if both parties sign. If the broker did not sign then there is no agreement. If you signed it for the broker without the brokers permission then it is not a valid agreement.

You should have explained this to your seller before you changed companies.

On another note, if you are a realtor and you talked to the seller about canceling the listing agreement then you broke the realtor code of ethics by soliciting another brokers active listing. You could be brought up to the grievance committee on this. Some are going to argue this but it is in the code and I have seen it done.

**rivenuru** · 12-23-2010, 08:10 AM

I absolutely did not solicit my client to cancel, and they did know that the listing is with the brokerage. However they do not feel that they are getting the service that is needed for this complicated short sale. I should also point out that my old broker made a point of telling other agents that "we're not like some other companies, if you decide to leave us you can take your listings". I also had another listing that the client (another agent) cancelled and they honored that one. So why is this one different?