My daughter put her house up for sale with a realtor in December 2007. A relative in the family decided to buy the property & the realtor has agreed: both have signed appropriate contracts and the loan has been approved. On May 16, 2008 (6 months after my daughter hired the realtor), the realtor finally put a "For Sale" sign in front of the house which has already been approved for purchase by the family member. Two people we know have called the realtor for information on this house, & are being given information as if the purchase by her family is nonexistent. The realtor is obviosly trying to receive higher bids from the short sale. How can she fire this realtor?

1. It is very likely a short sale will not be approved by the bank. I sent in over 10 this last year and not a single one was accepted. So until the lender approves the short sale ( they are the ones with final approval) then yes the realitor is suppose to, in fact in many short sales, the mortgage company will require that the property be on the market for so many months and that it be properly marked for sale.

The fact it is a family member wanting to do the short sale, may make the mortgage company worry that it is really worth more to other buyers.

And yes, she is free to submit other offers to the mortgage company that are better than other short sales, and is actually obligated to do so.

Since in a short sale the mortgage company is not getting paid all of their money, they will want to be sure they can not get more offers.
Also it is possible that they send an inspector by who noticed there was no for sale sign and actually instructed her to put a for sale sign up.

You are obligated to your realitor for the lengh of the contract you have with them, and can only "fire" them for not doing their job, actually putting up a sign and trying to get more offers is actually doing their job, since they have a obligation to try and get a high bid, even one over the mortgage amount so it would not be a short sale.

Thank you. We think it is odd that there was no sign in front of the house until 6 months after it was listed, and our loan already approved, and approved by the bank.

You are obligated to your realitor for the lengh of the contract you have with them, and can only "fire" them for not doing thier job, actualy putting up a sign and trying to get more offers is actually doing thier job, since they have a obligation to try and get a high bid, even one over the mortage amount so it would not be a short sale.


Shortened but didn't change the content - in my experience (and it may vary from State to State) realtors have a clause in the contract that if you find your own buyer, go outside the realtors, you owe a certain percentage of the sale price to the realtor. The last time I sold property I had that modified because a few people had actually looked at the property before it was listed and I didn't want to have to pay a commission if they purchased it.