Expert: Dick Dennis - 8/4/2006

Question
If we just wait out the remainder of our contract, is there anything they can hold us to within the 6 months after? We have someone interested in, and willing to wait, renting as soon as the contract time is up and has talked about purchasing the home in a year or two.
We know of these people privately and they have no dealings with our agent. Don't worry, we won't rent anything without consulting an attorney.
Also, if and when we relist the house, how do you get a 3 month contract? We had asked for that from all 5 realtors we interviewed and they all said 6 months was standard. Our current agent said not to worry since she could sell our home in less time than that. (We actually have an email from her reiterating that she thought she could sell it in 4 months. We have it all saved) She has also sent us copies of papers and booklets that she has advertised in, but they're all small rural papers and leaflet type books. We had to beg her to put our home in a larger, metropolitan paper (which did generate 2 showings from other agents). She has refused to put it in any larger papers since. When you write a contract up with a realtor, can you make requests as to where advertising is done and personalize the contract or do you pretty much have to stay within the format of their contract?
These are just some tips we thought would help if we relist in the future. Please add anything else you might think would be of good advice to us.
Thanks again
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Followup To

Question -
Ok, this may seem a little long, but this "mess" has been going on a little while.
In March we interviewed 5 realtors for selling our house. We chose one and listed on 3/27. She told us since we were the ONLY 4 bedroom in our school district under $200k that we should have an easy sale and be out by the time our new house was ready at the end of July - we're listed at $175k (jsut enough for payoff and commission). 4 of the 5 realtors came in with CMA's within $1000 of each other so we feel pretty confident that the pricing is right. We have also been keeping an eye on the real estate transfers to see if we're staying in the market and a lot of the 3 bedrooms are coming in at what we're asking and the only other 4 bedroom to sell came in at just under $200k. Our agent listed our house as ready to move in condition.
Our problem is that our realtor never returns our calls. She has only brought 2 lookers through, 1 could never qualify for our house and the other would like it but needs to sell theirs first. Her suggestion was for us to buy their house, so they cold buy our house and then we could turn around the sell their house for them. She says their house is not very showable due to the size of the home and number of persons living in it. We told her we thought the idea was crazy.
We have discussed discrepancies with her in what she's been doing to market our house and what is written down in her marketing plan booklet she left us. She has never done a brokers open. We had to bug her to put up more than 1 directional sign (she put one to the entrance of our street which is very far from any main road). We had to ask her several times to try an open house and when she did one our house was in the paper under the wrong city. It's like she doesn't care at all
We're just plain disgusted with her service and we emailed her broker 2 weeks ago to see if he'd let us switch realtors within his offices. He never replied.
On Monday we sent a letter asking for our house to be taken off the market and that we were essentially firing our real estate agent. We asked for a signed release too. We forwarded all correspondence to him as well so he could see all the different things she has been telling us (teh story always changes).Well, the broker finally responded and said NO. He feels that our agent is doing an "outstanding job" (2 showings in 4 months?). He suggested we lower our price and take up to a $10K loss from what we owe. We are in jeopardy of losing our end loan on our new house and our builder suggested trying to rent out our exsisting home and try to sell again in a year. We would like to do that and hav friends that may be interested in renting.
Can we fire our real estate agent? What can we do to at least get the broker to give us a different agent? Do we have any options here or do we just have to sit and wait it out? The broker has also told us that if we do anything during the remaining time on the contract that they will go after commission on it, including us renting it out. They have refused to take our house off the market/MLS. The new house was delayed a month, which has helped on the loan problem, but come Sept. 1st we're in trouble.

Thanks for ANY advice you have to offer!

Answer -
First of all, Bill, you have learned NEVER sign a listing for more than three months. I have never seen it fail in my 37 years in this business that when an agent gets a listing for six months he/she sits on it without promoting it at all. I could never figure that out.

Trouble is, Bill, your office would probably lie and show fictitious ads and advertising things that they would say they tried to sell the property if it was put in front of a judge. That;s why it is always good to put it down in writing what the Realtor did. That way you have a paper trail of exactly what they did. But that is water under the bridge.

I suggest you consult with a LOCAL REAL ESTATE attorney to have him/her to send a letter to the owner of the company saying that the listing is no longer in existence. It may cost you a couple hundred or so for that letter, but obviously, it would be worth it. I don't know if it is a good idea if you tell the attorney that the Realtor never returns your calls. After all, attorneys are infamous for that.

Yes, the listing does say, if you read it, that if you rent the property you do owe a commission. You need to scare the Realtor and his manager back with a letter from an attorney.

Please be aware that the market is way low. And it is not going to get better as we head toward the end of the year.
One other thing you should have done: never contract to buy another house without putting in a "this purchase is subject to and contingent upon the buyer successfully selling his property by x amount of time." That way you could never be in a position you are in how.

Go do the attorney thing.

I wish you well.

Dick Dennis          dixiedee13@aol.com

Answer
As long as those people were not introduced to your property by your agent, you have nothing to worry about. YOu may do as you please once the listing is expired. The only time that 6-month period kicks in is when a list of potential buyers was given to you IN WRITING at the close of your listing within five days. If they don't give you a list, you can forget about that six-month clause.

A listing IS NOT STANDARD. That is baloney. That's why there is a blank to be filled in by the agent, because it is negotiable. If you don't want a six month listing and they are not willing to go along, tell them thanks but you will find someone who will go for three months. And then tell them that you are willing to renew after the three months if the agent has actually shown they deserve it.

Example: When I work on a listing, I contact and talk with my clients three, four times a week to let them know what is going on with the market and their property. I literally make a pest of myself. But I have never had an exprired listing in 37 years! So, I don't go for their excuses.

I do wish you well.

Dick Dennis