Expert: Jessica Bryan - 10/16/2006

Question
Hi Jessica,
My girlfriend has signed a contract to sell her mobile home with a realtor. The contract effective date states 08/30/2006 thru 03/31/2006. Clearly this is a typo mistake, but can we use this as a means to terminate with this realtor. We are very dissatisfied with her lack of marketing of the property, lack of advertising the property. We recently had an open house this saturday and it was not advertised until the day of the event and the day after. We feel that she is not giving her best efforts on this property. Any help you can provide would be helpful. Thank you

Answer
Dear Gregg;
The wrong date is certanly a problem and can negate the contract.  However, I would like to address your dissatisfaction issues with the agent.  Have you discussed her marketing strategies with her?  Advertising the property is expensive and if an ad was placed I doubt that she would waste her money to run it too late to do any good.  Therefore there could have been a problem with the newspaper.  Often, there are glitches that are not an agent's fault. I am not trying to defend the agent since I really don't know how much or how little she has done for you, but I do know that very often people become unhappy with the agent when their homes don't sell quickly and sometimes it is not because of what the agent is doing or not doing.  The most common means of selling a home is through the use of the MLS listing.  It brings more attention to the home than any other means.  Ads are very poor in getting maximum attention since most people are now on the Internet.  Newspaper readership has gone way down.  Ads are expensive and don't bring results.  Open houses are also not as successful as they used to be.  The homeowner puts safety and secuirity in peril for the sake of showing "looky-loos" their home.  It can be an open invitation for people to look around a home for valuables and easy access.  I am not saying that this happens often, but is certainly a consideration.  

Regardless of the above discussion, if you want to cancel the contract with the agent, my suggestion is to call her, discuss your reasons and to ask for a release of the contract in writing.

Good luck and best wishes,
Jessica Bryan