Expert: Sue Bernstein - 4/9/2004

Question
 Hi. We are in So. CA. We are having a new house built, which will be ready in August. We signed a contract to sell our current home with a local Century 21 agent. He put the ending date of the contract as August 24. We are not happy with his performance this past month. Is there any way to get out of the contract? We would like to take our house off the market for a couple months, then relist it with someone else in June. Are we bound by this contract which claims "exclusive rights" through August? We'd like to either sell the home ourselves, our find a different agency.  

Answer
Hi Lisa,

You most likely signed a binding contract until the end date.  Many times you can get a cancellation but a lot depends on the policy of that particular company.  You can take 2 approaches.  You can just tell the agent that you want to take the property off the market and you don't want any more showings and ask for a cancellation.  Be careful not to take a conditional cancellation.  That will allow you to cancel the listing but if you sell it any time within the listing period you still owe the commission.  The other approach to take is to be a squeaky wheel and aggressively ask for the listing back and expressing your displeasure with the service. In either case the company may or may not agree to it.

Good luck and I hope it works out.

Sue Bernstein
www.SueBernstein.com