Expert: Jessica Bryan - 9/15/2009

Question
i have had my house on the market for 5 months now and a friend has put an offer to me personally and not to the agent. I wish to take it off the market and sell it privately to her. Is there a law to stop me doing this or do i just have to wait for a certain length of time before i do this??

Answer
Dear Katherine;
Unfortunately without seeing your listing contract I have no idea what it says about the time limit or other limitations.  Usually this is spelled out very clearly in writing in the listing agreement so the agent is compensated for their time and effort regardless of how the buyer goes about buying the home.  There are some listing agreements that make exceptions for friends, family etc. that see the home and allow the sellers the opportunity to sell it independently.  This is  a non-exclusive listing agreement.  In an exclusive listing agreement, however, there are no exceptions.  There are all sorts of exceptions and conditions that can be present in the contract so it is impossible to say what your particular agreement states.

Most contracts are extremely limiting--specifying that the agent will be compensated regardless of who the buyer is. If you think about it; the agent advertises the home and spends money marketing it. Then if someone comes along and wants to buy it directly from the seller cutting the agent out of the picture that agent has no way of recovering any of their costs.  It can be argued that the agent may have attracted the buyer through their efforts even if it is a personal friend of yours.  

If you still have questions about how to do this without the listing agent you will have to discuss it with an attorney who can look over the specific listing agreement to inform you of your legal responsibility to the agent.

Best wishes,
Jessica Bryan