Just wondering if anyone has dealt with this. Our deal is falling thru and we have to fire our realtor. She carries ALOT of the blame. She didn’t listen to us when we said we were uncomfortable with the buyers asking for an extension (not granted) & still sending inspectors to the property without permission, didn’t get any advice or support from her broker (who won’t call us back), and ultimately put us in a really bad position with a buyer who is essentially trying extort us for money by threatening to walk/void the contract last minute if we don’t agree to their monetary demands. They also lied about repair estimates they were given so we’re having to bring in our own professionals to get an accurate representation of our home because we’ve essentially been conned into thinking we had a lemon. Our new lawyer is dealing with that & we will be re-listing with a new agent. Our current one, however, is asking for us to reimburse her. Is this normal??? I honestly wanted to ask if she was smoking something.
Bad realtor asking for reimbursement
byu/Fun-Blackberry-371 inRealEstate
Posted by Fun-Blackberry-371
20 Comments
In sales, you win some, you lose some. Nothing is guaranteed. Unless you signed a contract saying you pay whether they sell it or not, I would think that you owe de nada.
Really depends on your contract. Some realtors have you sign a contract that states you owe commission if you sell within X amount of months after you fire them. Hence the reason I don’t use agents…ever. You will need to have your attorney look at what you signed. I’d you haven’t signed a contract with them, tell them to take a hike.
It doesn’t matter what anyone in Reddit thinks. All that matters is what’s in your contract. If you are unsure about anything in the contract, seek a consultation with a professional RE lawyer…
This should be spelled out in your initial listing contract with the agent, what happens if the house doesn’t sell or you part ways, and if any payment would be due.
But it sounds like issues came up during inspection, and your buyers are concerned about the cost to repair those issues. They’re trying to buy your house for money, not scam you out of your house for free, they just don’t want to make a bad investment and end up going bankrupt from repairs in the first year.
It’s not uncommon for an inspection to flag potential issues, or for buyers to renegotiate after inspection. It’s hard to tell if that’s all that happened, and you are taking it very personally, or if anything dishonest has occurred.
Read your contract.
But if she secured a ready willing and able buyer and you’re canceling, yes you should reimburse her for money spent. Also her broker may come after you for commission not paid
A —— lot.
[alot](http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html?m=1)
It depends what your listing agreement says. Many have a clause that states that the agent will be reimbursed for hard costs if you terminate the relationship before the agreement expires. It sucks, but it’s just like any other service. If I hire someone to do work on my house, they ask for a nonrefundable deposit to cover hard costs (materials). If they do a shoddy job and I fire them halfway through, I wouldn’t get my money back without a legal fight that I likely wouldn’t win. The main difference either realtors is that they don’t usually ask for a nonrefundable deposit up front, they just get reimbursed if the client decides to terminate prematurely.
The termination may have been warranted, but that still has to be litigated and proven. Is there a penalty to terminate before the contract expiration date. If yes, then money is owed until the penalty is legally cancelled.
The listing agent can’t control what buyers ask for. Your agent would be violating license law and the Realtor COE if she didn’t pass on buyers’ requests.
It’s ridiculous to accuse your agent of wrongdoing because you think the buyer is trying to extort you. Accusing the buyer of “lying” about their estimates for inspection issues is also ridiculous. This is always what buyers do. But you’re also honked off because your agent tried to schedule tradespeople to do estimates on your behalf?
What does the listing agreement say about reimbursing expenses if the seller cancels?
There’s a difference between firing your agent and firing the broker. Your contract is with the broker, not the agent. If the contract with the broker says that you will owe commission if you sell within X days after the end of the contract, then you will need the broker to release you from that if you want to go with a different brokerage. If you stay with the current broker, though, you can get a different agent to work with you from that agency without incurring the fee.
Does your contract with her state she will be reimbursed? If not, she can kick rocks.
You only owe her if the listing agreement you signed says that you agree to compensate her X even if she doesn’t sell the house.
Even if it does say something about compensation, her broker — not her — would be the only party with standing to bring suit. If the Broker doesn’t even call you back, I would imagine you’re not a top priority for them.
Further to that, it’s very, very rare for a Broker to sue a principal, even when they’re in the right. Once it gets out that Brokers sue their clients, that’s bad news for their future business.
You probably don’t want to hear this, but read your contract. I say that because no where in the Texas contract does it say the Listing Agent/Brokerage is going to “sell” your house. The contract states the listing brokerage is to bring you a ready, willing, and able buyer and if you agree to terms and execute a contract, the compensation is earned and due.
It doesn’t matter that buyers or sellers want to change terms because of an inspection. The initial terms were agreed to, period.
Now, will the listing brokerage ask you to pay the fee? I don’t know. Most don’t as they don’t want negative reviews… but your contract is a contract that you agreed to. The money goes through the brokerage, so it’s not really your agent who can force the payment, it’s the Broker.
Does your contract state the brokerage only gets paid if you close?
Real estate be tough in Jersey. And ny.
Good luck.
You didn’t sell so you don’t owe anything. These agent contracts are predatory so it may have tried to lock you in with them for 6 months or longer. But they’re not performing their duties adequately so I’d terminate. They can come after you if you have a long contract but very likely won’t. The realtor and the broker most likely won’t risk a lawsuit and bad reviews… I certainly would not go with an agent that had a history or review of suing their client.
You should be asking your attorney these questions. There’s an active purchase agreement. If it falls though, you owe your agent nothing. If the buyer follows through, then you owe a commission. It’s spelled out in the listing agreement.
It all depends on your contract with the agent/broker.
A buyer asking for credits/or price reductions after inspection is pretty common, it’s not extortion. You either agree or don’t, it’s up to you.
Is it possible you have unrealistic expectations about the value of your house and the issues it has? That will follow you around to any agent if that’s how you are approaching it.
It’s normal to a certain degree. My listing agreements do have a clause for a cancellation fee if you cancel prior to us getting it sold and before the expiration of our agreement. An example of why I would seek this would be if we list and I send my photographer over to shoot photos and do drone shots and virtual staging and then suddenly you decide that you guys don’t want to sell your house. I spent $300 getting photos done that I’m not gonna get back. That’s a scenario where you would pay an agent a reimbursement. I would t be paying them a reimbursement for stuff they fucked up but depending on how your agreement is worded, you might actually need to and honestly, if it’s a small amount of money it .ight be better to JUST pay it to get them to go away
Sound like normal negotiations. Buyer wants to beat you down on price and you want to maintain price. Nothing new here. Buyer has contractual right to bring in multiple inspectors.
It’s normal to reimburse for professional photos and print materials. $1200 is normal.
Reimburse for what exactly?