Is Realtor entitled to Commission

sparkymom · #1 Nov 3, 2006, 07:30 PM

Contract with Realtor expired. I advertised and conducted my own open house. A few days later, I resigned with Realtor - excluding 2 couples (that I showed the house to). At time of resigning Realtor told me that the couples had 2 weeks to put in an offer. Timeframe is not on the contract but the one of the couples put in offer on propery a week after resign (within agreed upon timeframe. Realtor was upset because she had nothing to do with sale and would not receive any commission. I told her I would give her a little something, so kept calling me and asking what I was going to give her. Since she did not sell the house I'm not legally bound to give her anything. I can't believe she kept bothering me and now I don't want to give her anything and you will understand by circumstances below.
One month later she sent letter to my attorney stating she is entitled to 1.5% commission (Fri. 11/3). She wants an answer by Monday 11/6 or she will put a lien on my property and take me to small claims court. 1.) Can she put a lien on my property? 2.) Is she entitled to any commission at all? 3.)Realtor claims she should get 1.5% because she did alot of work. I had 2 previous realtors that advertised and performed open houses as well, so are they all entitled to some money?
forgot to mention this is in Upstate NY.

Cvillecpm · Nov 4, 2006, 07:32 AM

Realtor/RE agents are TRUE CAPITALISTS....they only get paid for performance unless their listing indicates otherwise.

Have your attorney offer her $500 and if she takes it - write a letter to her RE BROKER, the local Realtor association, any franchise company - C-21, REMAX. etc she works FOR and state licensing board regarding her tactics.

You started this by promising her "something"....you SHOULD have promised to "use her for future RE dealings"....and then promptly thrown her card away.

sparkymom · Nov 5, 2006, 07:23 AM

OK, I agree I opened my mouth by saying I would give the realtor something and I did not specify the amount but she has no right to continue to bother me about it. At this point she should be happy if I give her anything. I spoke with another real estate agent yesterday, she said that since there were exclusions she is NOT entitled to anything. She should patiently wait to see what I am going to give her and be happy with what she gets. I never had any intentions of giving her 1/5%, the more she bothered me the more I did not want to give her anything. The realtor I spoke with yesterday said I could report her to her broker but the bad thing is she is her own broker. She also said there has to be proof and grounds before you just go throwing a lien on someone's property. I have looked all over the internet and cannot find anything about a realtor being able to put a lien against a clients property (if anyone knows something I don't please enlighten me). According to my attorney and others I have talked to Liens are for Material issues such as maintenance provided on ones home and the home owner not paying for the services. This particular situation does not qualify in that category, especially when there is a contract stating that the realtor excluded one of the buyers. I feel she is just trying to strong arm us. Cripe if this were the case, realtors prior to the one I have now are also entitled and can you imagine if this happened every where to all sellers.

She bad mouthed my buyers attorney and told me it would take forever to close and to watch him because he would try to take a cut from the sale since there was no realtor involved. Neither I or my attorney have had any issues with the buyers attorney, I think she is afraid he would get something and she would not.

My plan tomorrow is to go to attorney and tell him she does not have a leg to stand on. Give her a check for $50 or $100 and tell her good luck with future real estate transactions. I do know a lot of people and I will tell them how greedy she was in my situation. I swear you cannot trust some of these realtors. They take a chance every time they list a house - they have to spend money on advertisement and open houses (that is the name of the game). If the house does not sell within the negotiated contract timeframe and it sells a few days later they tend to lose out. It is my understanding the only time a realtor is entitled to a commission for a sale after the fact is if the buyer walked through with the realtor during contract. Word of mouth can make or break a person's reputation, I will follow through and give her a bare minimum amount but not the 1/5% she is asking for because she did NOTHING for my sale.

Cvillecpm · Nov 5, 2006, 07:46 AM

Yes - RE brokers can put liens on property in many states. It is usually commercial RE brokers who are entitled to thousands of $$$ in commissions for "mega-deals".

Your attorney needs to handle this ASAP to get her out of your face/life.

sparkymom · Nov 6, 2006, 08:19 PM

Latest update:

I spoke with the Real Estate Board today and was told that my realtor does not have a leg to stand on especially since I excluded my buyers. They also told me that if she continues with these allegations against me, I can file a grievance against her because she is bound ethically to represent the board as a Broker/Agent to do what is right for the customer. She is not acting in the boards best interest or mine either. The county clerks office said she can take me to small claims court but she better have some solid proof otherwise it will be thrown out there as well.

I sat down with my attorney today, he had conversations with others concerning this matter and stated that she should not have agreed to any exclusions. His tune was different from our conversation on Friday, he took more time to read the letter over again. He said that my RE is off base here and he has no intentions of contacting her one way or another. Although she keeps calling him - she will more then likely show up in his office. I told him if she does that let her know I have been in contact with the RE board and will move forward if she forces me to do so. He asked me how many times she called me? I said 3x's and he said that I am under no obligation to give her anything even though I said I would and understands why I did not dignify a response to her, especially since she kept bugging me. Attorney told me that he informed RE that I am under no obligation to give her anything since she agreed to the exclusion. We should be able to move forward with the closing even if she takes me to small claims court.

I saw the letter from RE today for the first time, basically she is trying to say that I had buyers in mind. She said that according to her call log, she received a call from one of the buyers on 9/7 - they said they have never talked to my realtor. In fact they never saw my house until I posted it on Craigs list. She had some trumped up idea that I had a scheme going with the buyers toward the end of our contract but I had never met them until my open house. RE neglects to ever mention that we now have a new contract and that the buyers were excluded. 1. If I knew without out a shadow of a doubt that these buyers would give me an offer why would I have signed a new contract with her? 2. If she had a call from the buyers then WHY did she agree to the exclusion?

She is basically saying that I asked for Comps and refused to sign a new contract with her on the 28th because I had a scheme going. It is so ludicrious, it cracks me up. The thing is, I called her on 9/21, just before she left to go on vacation to inform her my contract with her was running out on 9/24, she told me that we could renew it when she got back. (obviously she was not concerned) Now she is saying that I called her to ask when it was running out which is not true and that I refused to sign another contract with her when she got home on 9/28. I told her that I would sign up with her after the open house that I conducted and I was true to my word. I never refuses to sign another contract and she never ever indicates in the letter that we have another agreement with exclusions.

When I spoke with the RE upon her return, I told her that I informed her backup RE what on 9/25 that I was going to run my own advertisement in the weekly advertisement and conducting my own open house. This individual was very concerned that my RE would not be happy with what I was doing and that maybe she should pay for the advertisement. I gave her 24 hours to get back to me about this and she never called me back so I paid for the ad myself $76. (my RE laughed and thought this was funny). Obviously the backup RE knew something I did not know (that I was about to get hit upside the head with a brick).

Bottom line, I'm not going to dignify her ridiculous acquisations with a response at this time but will be ready with all barrels if she moves forward with her threat. BTW - I asked the attorney, is it me or is she threatening me here? He said she is threatening you but lets see if she acts on it - I will be ready.

Thanks for your responses.

Cvillecpm · Nov 8, 2006, 08:41 AM

Ball is in the RE agent's court. Don't spend attorney time/fees on it any more. Let her sue you in Small Claims Court and then you file against her RE license.

sparkymom · Nov 8, 2006, 04:02 PM

thanks, I will let you know what happens.

Sparkymom



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