A nightmare - uncoopeative real estate company

What is the name of your state? FL

Last October, we put our home on the market with a realtor friend. We set the expiration date for the end of April 2004. In November, our realtor switched realty companies. Company #1 allowed her to take our listing with her, with a verbal agreement with company #2, that should things with them not work out, she would be allowed to take our listing with her. Well, things did not work out and in mid-January, she quit the company; had us sign-off on our contract with company #2 and re-sign, again, with company #1. Company #2 said, "No, we will not honor this and the listing is ours." "If it's not in writing, we never said it." We then attempted to "pull" our house from the market but company #2 said, "No". We didn't feel it was worth consulting our lawyer, thinking we would just wait them out and if they found us a buyer, we would sell, if the buyer met our price. Around 10 days ago, we received our first offer ($29K below asking) plus with a contingency that the buyer sell her home first. We, of course, rejected this offer - if anything, our home is under priced plus the contingency was not acceptable.

As you may have concluded, this is not an ethical real estate company whom we got snared in by through no fault of ours. Our fear now is that this company will attempt to sue us for something.... We live in a rather small town in FL where realtors just don't do business this way. This company has only been here ten months and already has a very bad reputation. This, of course, is of little help to us.

I don't know if anyone has any suggestions other than to wait it out and see what happens. This is a company which "uses" the law just to the point of abuse. They have the tactic not to put in an expiration date on their contracts, thereby, the contract will not expire for, I believe, nine months. If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them. If not, buyer and seller beware of people like these. Get everything in writing! Our realtor has learned her lesson.

screw them.

You are under no obligation to accept any offer from their customers nor are you under any obligation (except for EXISTING buyers they have brought to you) to continue the relationship.

now, before you take this for granted, did you receive a listing contract with company 2 and if so, what does it say about cancellation?

[HomeGuru]

Send a certified rrr letter terminating the listing contract and cite the reasons why. Request that they send a confirmation letter documenting the listing termination. If they give you any hassles, file complaints with the state RE licensing office, the Board of Realtors, BBB etc.

Our contract expires this coming Friday, April 30th. After hunting for the past hour for the cancellation clause, I can see why one would be in a catatonic state. The legalese is enough to drive one to the beaches of Belize. All I can find is the following: "This contract constitutes the entire agreement between the parties and shall be binding and enforceable upon execution by SELLER and BROKER. Thereafter, this Contract cannot be terminated or modified in any manner, except by an agreement in writing, signed by SELLER and BROKER."

Our worry is the DEFAULT CLAUSE which states: "If the transaction shall not be closed because of the refusal, failure or inablity of SELLER to perform or if SELLER fails or refuses to enter into a contract with a ready, willing and able buyer of the Property, SELLER shall pay the Compensation (in this case 6%) to BROKER set forth in Paragraph 10 E in full upon demand by BROKER, etc.

We are caught in the untenable position of dealing with the .01% of realty companies. We will be contacting our lawyer Monday and he will write the termination letter.

Thanks for the advice.

[HomeGuru]

[quote]Originally posted by joanadan3
[b]Our contract expires this coming Friday, April 30th. After hunting for the past hour for the cancellation clause, I can see why one would be in a catatonic state. The legalese is enough to drive one to the beaches of Belize. All I can find is the following: "This contract constitutes the entire agreement between the parties and shall be binding and enforceable upon execution by SELLER and BROKER. Thereafter, this Contract cannot be terminated or modified in any manner, except by an agreement in writing, signed by SELLER and BROKER."

**A: yes, that's the standard crap, I mean verbiage in most of the listing contracts. I have terminated many listing contracts so as long as the termination is in writing signed by the parties, you're good.
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Our worry is the DEFAULT CLAUSE which states: "If the transaction shall not be closed because of the refusal, failure or inablity of SELLER to perform or if SELLER fails or refuses to enter into a contract with a ready, willing and able buyer of the Property, SELLER shall pay the Compensation (in this case 6%) to BROKER set forth in Paragraph 10 E in full upon demand by BROKER, etc.

**A: why worry? You do not have an accepted offer, therefore no contract, therefore no commissionis due. Not one cent.
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We are caught in the untenable position of dealing with the .01% of realty companies. We will be contacting our lawyer Monday and he will write the termination letter.

**A: I disgree with your % but good luck with the attorney.
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Thanks for the advice.

**A: you are welcome. Keep us posted.

Thanks! And I agree that I was probably too kind with the %.

Will keep you posted...

[HomeGuru]

Ok.