Hello,

We signed a contract with a realtor about 1 1/2 months ago. Prior to that time, we had been looking at doing a house swap in which we would buy a party's house and they would buy ours. We decided not to do the house swap with this party. After we signed the contract with the realtor, the house swap with this particular party became a viable option . Our realtor is saying that we are obligated to pay them the commission on the sale of our house to this party even though they did not locate the buyer and we talked to the party before we signed the contract.

As a side note, we have had only one person come through our home in the month and a half it's been on the market. The person did make an offer, but the offer fell through because of items that they were concerned about in the sellers disclosures. We have had our house on the market for nearly a year and a half. It doesn't look like we have a good chance of selling it with our agent.

Any feedback you can give on this situation would very much be appreciated.

It will be based on what is in the contract you signed with the realtor.
In my area, the contracts usually say the commission is due if the house is sold within 90days after realtor is released.
I think you would have needed to stipulate that you had a possible agreement and name the party in the contract.
But the practices and laws vary from state to state. I'm just stating what I have experienced.
If there is a 90 or whatever day clause, can you wait another 45 days or so?
Also, in a similar situation my attorney suggested the possibility that I could possibly negotiate the commission payment with the realtor.
They face the scenario that you may wait the specified amount of time and they will get nothing. Maybe they settle for half the commission and you could close sooner. Or just wait them out. That's what we did when purchasing our house and we had to wait 6 months because the waiting period doubled (from 90 to 180 days) because we first looked at the house through the owner's realtor. Good luck.

As long as you placed in the contract that you had been dealilng with so and so, and that this was exempt from the sale.

I would assume you added an exemption if you were dealing with someone before realitor

If you did not add this, yes most likely they are to receive a commission if the home sales if there is an exclusive contract.

There are many types of contracts some would require you to pay them, others would not

Thank you both for your input. I really appreciate it.