Expert: Ray Beggs - 9/25/2007

Question
Dear Ray,
My listing agent (who is also a real estate broker) failed to follow through on an offer that I had accepted a month ago, claiming that the buyer's agent had never replied. But in fact, she purposely ignored the buyer because they refused to buy the house through her (she has shown the house to the buyer's relative who live in-town, but that person is not the actual buyer). I later realized I have the other agent contact number from the offer letter so I called and found out about all this. By doing so, was the broker in violation of the Listing Agreement contract? Can I demand an unconditional cancellation of the Exclusive Rights to Sell Listing Agreement because of this issue?  She has costed me a sell and now house prices are falling by the minute!  Please help me with advise on how to handle this situation.  Thank you in advance and best regards.  

Answer
Hi Lanchi,

You can ask the real estate agent to let you out of the listing agreement and see if there is something that can be worked out. There really isn't any agency or court that will immediately terminate the contract. I will say this though, there is a chance that you're not hearing the whole story from the agent that you called, for whatever reason. I say that because the story doesn't make monetary sense to me. Your agent didn't get a sale when the offer didn't go to escrow and lost out on their sales commission. Buyers are to few and far between for me to buy the fact that your agent let that one go just to wait for another one, or because they were upset that the buyers didn't use her as their agent.

Best of luck,

Ray