Expert: Dottie Worthington - 6/17/2007

Question
My husband and I saw a house we were interested in before we even considered putting our house up for sale.  We contacted the realtor that was representing the property. We found out that the realtor was the brother of the property owner.  After we saw the house we really liked it.  We decided to ask the realtor to represent selling our house because we figuered he would move heaven & earth to sell our house so that he would be able to sell his brother's property.  We signed an agreement which expires in July and we have had nothing but problems with this realtor and want to change.  This realtor doesn't return phone calls, doesn't advertise right and basically seems like a typical partying car salesman.  We want to change, but don't want our chances of getting his brothers property (we already put in a bid and he accepted) messed with.  Is there anything he can do legally to make it so we don't get his brothers property.  I hope this makes sense to everyone.  We have not signed a contract with the other property, we just placed a bid.

Answer
Sounds like a bad predicament. If you haven't signed a binding contract on the purchase, just withdraw your offer. Then ask her if you can cancel your listing agreement. She will tell you your options, it spells them out in your listing agreement. Have you read that? Hope that helps.