We've been looking on our own for a couple of months now. My wife and I went to see a property and met the realtor for the property. We don't really like the place and tell the realtor, after asking us a few questions about what we were looking for the realtor said he may have some other things we may be interested in.

Two days later he calls us with 3 properties gives us the addresses and tells us to go on Sunday to view the properties with him. We go to the first place henever shows up. Since it's an open house we walk in and talk to the seller's agent. Then we decide to drive by the toher houses and take a look. One of the realtor's associates is at the next house and apologizes and he can't get into this house and we should go to the third house. When we get to the third house we can't get in either. Needless to say we were a little anoyed with these guys and we just leave.

We really liked the first place and called the agent that showed us the property and set up an appointment to talk. Today he calls back and says the Realtor that never showed up called him and says that everything has to go through him.

We never signed a contract or made any oral agreements. Is this enforcable. Do I have to go through him. I really don't like this guy. What are my options?

You are free to pick whomever you want as you never signed a contract





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Paul Oaks
Broker\REALTOR
Coldwell Banker

True and even if you DID have a contract, the agent who showed you the house would have won in court.

but ya, sounds like your orignal agent was lame, or too busy for his own good (which will still bite him in the ass later on)

Work with the agent who will be work for your best interest, has time for you.

Good Luck
Ritu


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Ritu Desai
Buying or Selling in Northern Virginia? Contact me for all your residential real estate needs

SAMSON REALTY,LLC
Phone: 703-625-4949
Email - rituadesai@yahoo.com
On the web: http://www.homesdatabase.com/ritu

If you never entered into a contract with this agent, you should have no problems going with another agent. The agent did not live up to their "fiduciary duties". Go out and find someone who is going to go out of their way to help you out, not someone who just gets out of the way. Good luck!

This is not the place to solicit business!

how would the agent that showed him the home have won in court? say the client does sign a buyer broker contract, then arent they obligated to use that agent? if not, that wouldnt be fair to the client's agent just because another agent showed the client 1 property!

In this case, the agent who lived up to his duties would have been able to collect on the commission. We can't get a commission just because the contact says so. If we don't live up to our duties, the contract can be thrown out. Agents can't just have buyer's sign representation agreements and then abandon them.

The only thing the agent would be to do (if they had an agreement) is try to take the buyer to court, arbitration, etc., in which case they'd have to pay the buyer's legal fees should they lose. Wouldn't be worth it, especially if you didn't do anything to deserve pay.

my concern is this:

say i have a potential buyer sign a buyer/broker agreement and we go look at homes on a saturday. the buyer doesnt like any of these homes. now say the buyer goes out sunday by himself and sees an open house that they want. if the buyer uses the open house agent, then why should they be getting commission? just because i wasnt with them on that sunday, i should no longer get my commission by having the contract upheld? that would be messed up.

This is a basic question that's covered in regular pre-licensing classes, buyer rep courses, ethics classes, etc.

In this case, the agent didn't do anything. He hasn't shown houses, written any contracts, contacted the customer, etc . Just because a buyer doesn't like a house, it doesn't mean you didn't live up to your fiduciary duties. It sounds like you need to brush up on what an agent's fiduciary duties are. You remember, OLDCAR? Obedience, loyalty, disclosure, care...etc? Here they are from a quick Google search. "Reasonable Care and Diligence" is the operative one here.

if this response was for me, you are totally missing my point. in the example i gave above, i explained if i had shown houses to my client but then my client went to look at a house that i didnt show him, then he decides to buy it, the other agent doing open house should not get my commission for it.

The answer to your question is obvious. If you have a buyer's rep and it says you get commission, the only way you don't is if you don't fulfill your duties. If they go off on their own and find a house, they owe you commission unless your agreement allows for this.

Like I said, the answer to this question is beaten into us in pre-licensing courses, buyer rep courses, and basic contracts classes. It's a common situation, so the question is raised all of the time.

that is NOT how xstudiox made it sound when he said: i figured the contracted agent gets paid but his statement threw me way off.

He was following up on the actual topic, which specifically involved a buyer who did not sign an agreement or agree orally to be represented.

All other issues are separate.

i know he was following up on the actual topic, BUT he did make a change to it with a theoretical statement behind it. note that he said "even if you did have a contract". so i went off of his statement with a question for him to back that up.