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dawson64 · Jul 25, 2008, 05:03 PM

I need to find away for my daughter to get out of a real estate listing agreement... she is very unhappy with the listing agent... she all ready asked to be let out of the agreement the agent would not let her out... and if she stays in the listing agreement till the ending date and the house does not sale?? As it has not in the last 6months, she will be in foreclosure. There must be a loop hole let me know ASAP... Thank you PAT

JudyKayTee · Jul 25, 2008, 05:05 PM

Originally Posted by dawson64

I need to find away for my daughter to get out of a real estate listing agreement......she is very unhappy with the listing agent.......she all ready asked to be let out of the agreement the agent would not let her out .......and if she stays in the listing agreement till the ending date and the house does not sale??? as it has not in the last 6months, she will be in foreclosure. there must be a loop hole let me know ASAP........Thank you PAT

A real estate listing is a legal contract - there are no loopholes.

Fr_Chuck · Jul 25, 2008, 07:12 PM

Has the agent put a sign in front, is it listed in the MLS, To be honest even great deals are sitting for monhts. It is a issue that what are they not doing right?? Is the house listed at a low enough price to interest buyers? Are there problems in the home that need repairs

dawson64 · Jul 25, 2008, 11:38 PM

Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

Has the agent put a sign in front, is it listed in the MLS, To be honest even great deals are sitting for monhts. It is a issue that what are they not doing right ???? Is the house listed at a low enough price to interest buyers ?? Are there problems in the home that need repairs

Hi: yes the agent has put a sign out front... and the house is MLS... the house down the street sold in one month with no up grades. My daughter put all new floors... the kitchen is all new within the last two years... back yard needs some work... but the bones of the house are very good... price has been dropped two times... there has been some problems because my daughter is not living in the house her husband and two sons have been living there... they are not together... so the agent knew this and told my daughter she would help stage house for her, the first few open house she did but then she started not going to the open houses but sending someone other the herself... my daughter works late three nights a week and has a hard time keeping the house up her husband is no help even though he will profit from outcome... also the agent does not return my daughters calls... sometimes it takes her two days to get back to her... then if she is having an open house the next day my daughter has to go over at ten at night to clean she is there till one or two cleaning... and another thing the agent has had only 11 open houses in 6months the agent has another job... conflicting with her job as my daughters agent... we thought there would be no problem getting out of the listing so my daughter had another agent take a look at the house the new agent said that the house should have been sold a long time ago. The house is in a great family area good school district an should not have been on the market this long... any input would be great... do you think she has a case?? dawson64

JudyKayTee · Jul 26, 2008, 06:37 AM

Originally Posted by dawson64

Hi: yes the agent has put a sign out front......and the house is MLS.....the house down the street sold in one month with no up grades. my daughter put all new floors........the kitchen is all new within the last two years..... back yard needs some work........but the bones of the house are very good.....price has been dropped two times......there has been some problems because my daughter is not living in the house her husband and two sons have been living there......they are not together...so the agent knew this and told my daughter she would help stage house for her, the first few open house she did but then she started not going to the open houses but sending someone other the herself.........my daughter works late three nights a week and has a hard time keeping the house up her husband is no help even though he will profit from outcome..... also the agent does not return my daughters calls......sometimes it takes her two days to get back to her.....then if she is having an open house the next day my daughter has to go over at ten at night to clean she is there till one or two cleaning.......and another thing the agent has had only 11 open houses in 6months the agent has another job.....conflicting with her job as my daughters agent......we thought there would be no problem getting out of the listing so my daughter had another agent take a look at the house the new agent said that the house should have been sold a long time ago. the house is in a great family area good school district an should not have been on the market this long.......any input would be great......do you think she has a case???????? dawson64

No, I do not. I do not see grounds for breaking the contract. What does the "new" agent propose to do to move the house that the present agent is not doing? Keep in mind that the "new" agent wants the listing and very well could say anything - "could have been sold a long time ago" is not, unfortunately, a guarantee.

I don't see a substantial breach here; however, has your daughter approached her agent and said she wants out of the listing agreement? If the agent does release your daughter check for a provision that the house cannot be listed with another broker for a certain number of months and be aware that the original agent can very well "blackball" the house. Unprofessional but it does happen.

In this market "needs some work" can be a killer, good bones or not.

Fr_Chuck · Jul 26, 2008, 07:13 AM

Also one of the things is it sounds like the ex husband may be part of the largest problem,

froggy7 · Jul 26, 2008, 10:58 AM

That's what I'm thinking. A husband and two boys are probably not keeping the house in "show-ready" condition. And right now most markets have a lot more houses than buyers, so if someone is looking at your house, which is messy, and a similar house which isn't, they are going to go with the other house. First impressions count for a lot in selling a house. Most people can't see past the surface appearances.

sully20 · Jul 26, 2008, 12:30 PM

That is a bunch of crap, they have to let you OUT of the agreement, did you speak with the owner of the agency? SULLY

JudyKayTee · Jul 26, 2008, 01:23 PM

Originally Posted by sully20

That is a bunch of crap, they have to let you OUT of the agreement, did you speak with the owner of the agency? SULLY

You are legally incorrect - she signed a contract. Why do you say, "They have to let you OUT ..." What is your legal basis for this?

Your "that is a bunch of crap" comment is inappropriate. This is not a public forum, discussion board - it's a legal board.

Fr_Chuck · Jul 26, 2008, 02:04 PM

No sully you just have no idea what you are talking about, they do not have to do anything but follow the contract rules

dawson64 · Jul 26, 2008, 10:10 PM

Originally Posted by sully20

That is a bunch of crap, they have to let you OUT of the agreement, did you speak with the owner of the agency? SULLY

Hi sully thanks for the encouragement... my daughter gave the owner a big pice of her mind he just listened and at the end of the call he just said it is a contract.dawson64

dawson64 · Jul 26, 2008, 10:22 PM

Thanks to All... Can anyone of say that if you had a client that was that unhappy with you and had not confidents in you.. would you want to keep them anyway.and on top of that would you want to be responable for someone losing there house and being in debt for many years?? dawson64

JudyKayTee · Jul 27, 2008, 06:09 AM

Originally Posted by dawson64

Thanks to All.........Can anyone of say that if you had a client that was that unhappy with you and had not confidents in you.. would you want to keep them anyway.and on top of that would you want to be responable for someone losing there house and being in debt for many years?????????? dawson64

What "anyone" of us would or would not do has nothing to do with the law - I hope that most of "us" would have looked into the background/sale history/employment of the realtor before signing a contract.

Your daughter signed a contract and is, therefore, bound by its terms. You asked on a legal board and you got answers according to the law.

I'm sorry you don't agree or don't like the answers (except for Sully, who is legally incorrect) but that is the law.

And now that your daughter has given the realtor a "big piece of her mind" I would assume she will get no cooperation whatsoever, will be branded difficult and the listing will simply expire at the end of the contract.

I don't see that the realtor is single handedly responsible for your daughter losing her house and "being in debt for many years." It sounds to me like there were problems long before the realtor came into the picture.

Sorry to be harsh but everyone has tried their best to give you legal answers and you've turned it around to what would "we" do, which has nothing to do with anything.

Fr_Chuck · Jul 27, 2008, 06:22 AM

The issue here is not what is "nice" or what I may or may not do.
First we will clear a few issues, AGENT, is not over the contract, the contract will be with the broker, so if the agent is not the broker, the agent has no authority to let anyone out of the contract, only the broker can void the contract. And yes, almost all Brokers will hold you to their contracts, in case the house will sale.

And it is not uncommon for real estate agents to have another agent from the office handle a open house, they may have a dozen open houses going on, and the "hotter" houses get the better sales people to staff them.

And telling off a agent as noted may make her feel better but now will almost be sure that they will hold her to it. Plus depending on the size town, the real estate business is a small family, and if you get known as a hard to deal with customer that will travel with you to a nw broker.

Does the daughter go to any of the open houses to see what it looks like ?
Also who is paying for the staging that the real estate agent suppose to be doing, that is not free you know. Is the house perfectly clean at all of the open houses.

rockinmommy · Jul 27, 2008, 08:56 AM

Originally Posted by dawson64

I need to find away for my daughter to get out of a real estate listing agreement......she is very unhappy with the listing agent.......she all ready asked to be let out of the agreement the agent would not let her out .......and if she stays in the listing agreement till the ending date and the house does not sale??? as it has not in the last 6months, she will be in foreclosure. there must be a loop hole let me know ASAP........Thank you PAT

I just wanted to chime in with the other answers you didn't like. I'm sorry your daughter is in this situation. I'm sure it's incredibly stressful.

Unfortunately, they have no obligation to release her from the contract. It actually sounds to me like they're going above and beyond what they would have to do. It's not the realtor's job to stage the house and make it ready for showings or open houses. If she's doing that for your daughter - even sometimes - that's a bonus.

At this point, in this real estate market, the only thing I can see that this realtor is doing wrong is not being completely frank with your daughter. As another poster pointed out, it seems clear to me that the occupants of the house are probably the biggest factor holding it back. Buyers (except investers who will only pay pennies on the dollar) cannot see past ANY problems, or messes. It's not the realtor's fault that your daughter has to go over there at night and clean the house. No new agent is going to go do that for her. There's a big difference between cleaning and staging!

And one other little thing I wanted to point out to you. Open houses really don't sell houses! It's a huge tool for realtors to get clients (the people who come to the OHs). VERY few houses sell from open house showings!

froggy7 · Jul 27, 2008, 01:55 PM

Everything rockinmommy said is what my agent told me when I was selling. The reality is that in many places, houses are taking much longer to sell than they used to. It's not unknown for them to sit on the market for over a year. So, unless your daughter can point out things that your realtor is doing wrong, there's no grounds for her to get out of the contract. More importantly, unless you can point out those things, there is no reason to think that another realtor will do any better at getting the house sold. So switching to someone else is most likely not going to stop your daughter from losing the house.