Expert: John - 4/8/2008

Question
"Our house was put on the market on March 5, 2008. We signed a contract on March 14, 2008. Our buyers are going FHA, and they just finished with the FHA appraisal/inspection (came back 'as is' -no repairs required). However they asked us if they could call an electrician to come out and give them an estimate on some things that -their personal home inspector- noted and we agreed. Their 'final decision' will come after they go over the estimate from their electrician (no later than tomorrow night-Tuesday, April 8).  **Our concern starts here: Our real estate agent took our house off their website last Friday, April 4, 2008 as well as 'out of the system' so that no other real estate company can pull up our house. 'It has disappeared off the radar screen' as she put it. We are still on the MLS website (we have a link to our house only), and beside 'status' it says 'pending' --which of course we ARE, but our buyers could STILL decide they want to walk, or WE could still decide at this point that WE want to walk (if they give us unreasonable repair requests).    My question is: Aren't agents supposed to keep you 'out there' advertising-wise, until you CLOSE? What if something happens with their financing? What if they decide they don't care about the earnest money and walk RIGHT BEFORE we close? In our opinion, anything can still happen, and while we HOPE it doesn't...we just thought real-estate 'protocol' was to keep it advertised until the FINAL last minute. Our agent says that 'this is the way it's done,' and she 'feels good' about this contract so she pulled it. --We almost feel like our agent is trying to pigeon-hole us into going through with this contract 'do or die' because she's acting as a 'limited consensual dual agent' and will be making a hefty commission. Can you advise? Thanks, Avery"

Answer
Did your Realtor do anything wrong?  No.

Was it smart of her?  No.

While she did nothing wrong, My wife ( who is a Realtor ) and myself do not agree with what she did.

My wife leaves them on her site even after it sells.

The only thing you can do is ask her to leave it on until settlement.

Remember, having it on her site is not a must, rather a option she does.

John