We signed a contract to sell our condo. Early the next day, we had a friend of a neighbor contact us personally, that wanted our condo. It is a marriage made in -heaven-the selling price is acceptable to us, the posession date is perfect, & he wants to buy some of my personal property to boot. We contacted our real estate agent & he said 'fine-he would take 4% instead of 6%. We think that's very unreasonable, since he hasn't had the contract for over 24 hrs. He's had no expense involved. How can we come to an agreement that is fair-can we legally cancel the contract & have someone buy the property within the 90 day contract timeline? We have been honest with our agent & have explained the whole situation to him. Also, this is a small town-I could probably do some damage to his reputation over this greed. I need some direction.

Well, let's see the whole picture here:

1. You signed a legally binding contract with a real estate firm to sell your condo at a price you agree to and to pay them a 6% commission.

2. The next day the proverbial "friend of a friend" calls and says "I'll take it". BTW, how did this FOAF find out it was for sale??? If you had not listed it for sale and either told the neighbor what you did or the neighbor saw your yard sign would they have ever known it was for sale???

3. Anyway you and the FOAF met and agreed on a price. If you'll read your listing contract I believe there's a very good chance one of the provisions in it says you will refer any and all potential buyers to the listing agent. Just out of curiousity does the price you agreed to involve a 6% discount???

4. So you finally contact your real estate agent and he says "great, I'll give you a 2% discount." which you apparently think is good enough because, "He's had no expense involved".

5. Unless he agrees to take way less, (1%, $200???) you now threaten to trash his reputation in your little village.

Whatever you and the real estate agent can agree to is between you and he but I'm thinking there's probably not a number you're going to be happy with unless it's $0.

I see no legal basis for you to cancel your listing contract unless your real estate agent agrees.

Ok, response is well taken. We are not the type that will trash someones reputation-if we were unethical, we would have just called him the next day & said we changed our mind & waited 90 days, sold the place to the friend of a friend, & moved on to Florida from our little village. Also, we are willing to pay 2% to him but 4% is a little steep, we think. He said he wouldn't take less than 4%. I think it's the broker who's being unreasonable in this case.
Incidently, the price we agreed to involves a 4% discount.

Curious how the math works here. :p

Original commission you agreed to: 6%
Your discount to buyer: 4%
Amount you now want agent to take: 2%

6%-4%=2%

The broker probably thinks you're being unreasonable too.

If you tried to give away 4% of my paycheck you would probably find me a tad unreasonable too.

I'm sure that he does think we're being unreasonable. However, at this point, we are not trusting each other even though we're being gentlemenly. I do not like to begin a business relationship this way. I'm not sure that I can just 'suck up' but guess I'm going to have to for 90 days.

It could also depend on the type of listing you signed with him. Or if there is something written in the agreement that says, if you are the procuring cause of the sale, the listing agent gets nothing.... You would've written that in yourself though. Sounds like you should just pay your agent the amount you agreed to.
You should've tried to market your own home a bit before agreeing to sign with an agent if you didn't want to pay a comission.

You're the one that "begin a business relationship this way" by making your deal without your agent's knowledge or input.

It's always harder to sell something after the fact than before.

It may be a bit longer than 90 days if you intend to try and wait out the listing and screw him out of the whole commission.

It's a common practice in listing contracts to have a "carry over" period in which a commission would still be due if the property was sold during that carry over period to anyone that looked at it during the term of the original listing contract.

Why not see if he wouldn't accept 3% with both of you giving a little???

Joann-
Your qoute..."We think that's very unreasonable, since he hasn't had the contract for over 24 hrs. He's had no expense involved. How can we come to an agreement that is fair-can we legally cancel the contract & have someone buy the property within the 90 day contract timeline?"

1st of all, let me ask you, how much time and expense would you feel the agent would have to spend to make it "reasonable" for his pay?
30 days? 60? 2weeks? $1,000? $5,000?

You see, there was an agreement (listing) that was ratified by all parties. We all work on a commission basis, and if we sell one property faster than another, so be it, whether it comes from direct advertising, the MLS, or a friend of a friend. These are all factored into what one's expenses , costs, and time involved and the expected return on those items. Some take more time and money than others.

I feel that the agent could have legally enfored the full commission, but opted to give you a break.
He is the one who is being the reasonable one. Give him a break.

One other problem I see, is your intent on "sucking up the 90 days" to wait for the listing period to be over. It show intent on your side to defraud, and it is in writing on this board. I feel that most every judge would rule in favor of the total commission to be awarded to the agent, should this be brought up.

Bottom line- accept the discount the agent has offered, let him do his work regarding getting the buyer qualified, the disclosures required, the followup, the coordination of all the inspections, etc. etc, etc and consider yourself lucky that you had the wisdom to hire an agent that has compassion and is flexible.
Good luck in your sale.

I'm happy that I could use this forum to 'vent'-yes, I was very unhappy with the outcome. I do understand it better from the agents point of view after hearing from you. I have decided to just sell & pay the commission. I think that's the right thing to do.

Great decision Joann.