Expert: Dottie Worthington - 1/15/2009

Question
our property is in central texas and we hired a broker after terminating our
contract with our first realtor that was unethical, at best.  our broker brought
a realtor from his office over saying she was going to try to help him sell the
house.  we thought more for the buyers side but it was never made clear who
worked for who!!  after getting everything in order with the broker, we moved
out of state for my husband's job.  our house is vacant.  two months later we
were given an offer that we countered and finally accepted.  this lady is the
one that was negotiating between us and the buyers; we never heard from
our broker.  she made me very uncomfortable as she was blatantly serving
the buyer's interest and not ours as the seller.  she told me that she wanted
the contract signed and if the buyers wanted more, she told them we would
have to sign an amendment.  she made comments that we were being greedy
by not giving the buyer more as she knew what we were making on the deal.  
mind you, we already were giving the buyer's $10,000.  she failed to deposit
the earnest money stating the reason was that she was waiting to see if the
contract "was a go" and that the buyers may ask for more.  we contacted our
broker and he stated that was a poor way to handle business and he would
have the check deposited the next morning.  the next morning i received a
tacky email from her and the contract was still not at the title company by
2:00 pm.  my husband called the broker and explained that we were livid
about how this was being handled and that we were ready to contract trec if
need be.  i called the broker back a little over an hour later and he had taken
the money to the title company.  we signed the contract early monday
morning and the contract wasn't at the title company until 3:30 the second
day after contract execution, late wednesday afternoon.  i know the trec rules
state that was "reasonable time" but doesn't the reason it was not handled
properly cancel that reasonable time period out?  i mean we had to yell and
threaten trec complaints to our broker to get anything done.  also, the
contract we signed has buyer and seller as intermediary so this woman's
name could be on the contract; we never granted our broker intermediary
status.  i read and i know this can be grounds for license revocation, should i
proceed with that?  he blew it off when i questioned him about it, i can never
get a straight answer from anyone!!  the deal is about to fall through and we
know our broker and this realtor woman are in the wrong but they keep lying.  
i don't think there was a signed contract before she left these people have
our home inspected.  she said the husband couldn't be at the inspection early
that morning because of work but when i asked if the contract got signed she
said yes.  he couldn't show up for the inspection when his wife signed the
contract but he somehow signed the contract before the inspector entered
the house?  she lied about receiving the earnest money and option period
money but i can't prove that.  i am wondering if this contract we have is even
binding since there was no intermediary status granted?  she really had no
authority to act as a dual agent and i know acting as such in texas is illegal
anyway.  we have 2 days left in the option period and i think the people are
going to cancel anyway.  please help!!!

Answer
Jessica:
It sounds like a mess, but you should have a listing agreement signed and a contract signed it sounds like. In court, that is what they would go by. Is this broker and agent a REALTOR? They have ethics they must go by. That is different from TREC. If they are it sounds like some things may have been handled unethically, but if they get the house closed, you can be done with it all, and if not, then the problem is much bigger. Is that clear as Mud?  The best thing to do is taken your written documents, and any written correspondence to the Title company and let them know you are upset and want this handled to get it closed, or ask to speak to their attorney. Good luck.