expired listing contract

Our realtor's contract is expiring next week. Recently, friends have decided to make an offer on the house. In their excitement, they stopped by the open house last weekend. They did not tell the realtor they knew us or that they had an interest in the house. We would prefer to sell the house without a realtor to our friends. If they wait until after his contract expires to make an offer, is the realtor still entitled to his commission since they visited his open house?

I'll let HomeGuru talk about whether the agent still gets a commission. Hint: Read the listing agreement & see what it says about this situation. Had your friends been in the house before you listed it? Leaving that aside, the real question is whether you *should* forego the agent's services.

Sam, do you want to keep these friends after the sale? Then use a licensed agent to do the deal. Owner-drafted sales contracts go bad more often than not, & then you're stuck in litigation with your former friends, with an attorney who's trying to fix all the mistakes you made during the sale. Plus, you'll be tempted not to use an escrow service, which blows up in your faces even more often than not using an agent. Frankly, the money you spend on the commission could save you LOTS of money & aggravation later. You'll spend $1,000's on attorney fees for a private sale anyway.....

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This is not legal advice and you are not my client. Double check everything with your own attorney and your state's laws.

[HomeGuru]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by sam1:
Our realtor's contract is expiring next week. Recently, friends have decided to make an offer on the house. In their excitement, they stopped by the open house last weekend. They did not tell the realtor they knew us or that they had an interest in the house. We would prefer to sell the house without a realtor to our friends. If they wait until after his contract expires to make an offer, is the realtor still entitled to his commission since they visited his open house?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I agree with Tracey on all points. The answer to your question is yes, the Realtor is entitled to get his commission. This is known as the Realtor being the "procuring cause" for the sale. Since the listing was in effect at the time and your friends visited his open house, he is the Realtor of record even though your friends may buy the home after expiration of the listing agreement. More importantly (and this has nothing to do with the open house senario), if you signed the standard Realtor's Exclusive-Right-To-Sell listing agreement, he is entilted to his commission if you showed the home to your friends without him, they wanted to buy and you wrote the contract up yourselves. This is true even if your friends never went to the open house, as long as this was done within the term of the listing agreement. In an exclusive-right-to-sell contract, the Seller gives the Realtor the exclusive right to sell the property no matter what. Even if you found your own Buyer, did the deal without the Realtor and closed, the Realtor is still entitled to the commission as set forth in the listing agreement.

[This message has been edited by HomeGuru (edited June 28, 2000).]