patrick.net

I suggest you go over what you signed with your listing agent and be open and honest to him. Tell him you do not want to sell anymore. You can just totally ignore the offer.

Vain says

You can just totally ignore the offer.

yes, but the listing agreement is a contract that protects the listing agent in situations like these.

Any Ideas?

Dunno. Doesn't look good if you get a full offer and signed the typical listing agreement. But get thee to a lawyer and/or wait for better advice. This:

be open and honest to him

may not be the best advice from a loss mitigation standpoint.

TechGromit, I want to share my experience in hopes that it might help you. Years ago, we put our house on the market, but later decided we didn't want to take a loss by selling. We talked to our agent and told her that we changed our minds and wanted her to cancel the listing. She was very understanding and removed the listing from MLS. There was no offer on the table when we made this decision to have the listing withdrawn.

After that, we waited a few years and then sold our house by ourselves and only paid a 3% commission to the buyer's agent. We didn't lose money because our house had appreciated in that time.

Perhaps you should have a heart to heart with your agent and have him/her withdraw the listing as soon as possible.

TechGromit,

I'm all for having the heart to heart with your real estate agent. Most of them are decent enough people, and given the overall tone of your past posts to this forum, I would be surprised if you were working with anyting less than a true professional.

However - if you have a good real estate attorney, I would talk with him or her first, just to clarify 1) if you are on the hook for the commission from a contractual standpoint and 2) what (if anything becomes of the "pending" offer should you decide to sell.

Armed with the prerequisite knowledge in your back pocket, talk to your real estate professional, explain the situation and hopefully, any hard feelings will be minimal.

You haven't received an offer - yet. Pull it off the market asap. If you get a full price offer...
call the realtor and tell him that you're concerned about an inspection issue that could stop the sale completely... insulation issues? asbestos? leaking roof in the attic? Make it believeable and tell him that you must pull the house from the market until it's resolved.

I'd review the contract. I'm not so sure that you have a problem if you pull it before you get an offer. But laws vary from state to state. pulling it from the market before you have an offer is the first step, I'd say.

I had a friend who had an order to sell their house during their divorce (and have the proceeds placed in escrow pending the trial). Knowing that she was going to get it in the end and that this was just the act of a vindictive soon-to-be ex-husband, she showed the house per the court order.

There was a vent in the ceiling; she painted a couple of black streaks by it and said that the fire department had told her it wasn't actually a fire that started in the attic... no sale. And, yes she was awarded the house in the divorce.

Now I know I’m under no obligation to sell, but refusing to accept a full price offer could expose us to legally pay the Realtor there 5% commission (about 20k).

Instead of a Realtor, a lawyer to draw up a contract and have it finalized for a fixed fee.
It would cost you fraction of RE commission.

Hey techgrommit, you bought the same time I did!

Tell me your secret: Howdya get her to sell?

thomas.wong1986 says

Now I know I’m under no obligation to sell, but refusing to accept a full price offer could expose us to legally pay the Realtor there 5% commission (about 20k).
Instead of a Realtor, a lawyer to draw up a contract and have it finalized for a fixed fee.
It would cost you fraction of RE commission.

Banks counter offer list price all the time on REO's.

@ TechGromit,

I remembered this story from last year. If you wouldn't mind saying, what finally happened? Did you sell?

I'm betting he stayed... It sounds like a nice place.

American in Japan says

@ TechGromit,
I remembered this story from last year. If you wouldn’t mind saying, what finally happened? Did you sell?

Final offer was 375k, we turned them down after looking at a few properties and seeing nothing that compared to what we currently have (but smaller for less money). the entire point is to decrease expenses, if we can not decrease mortgage amount by 100k, it's just not worth doing.

It's not the mortgage that's killing me, but the taxes. I can't see taxes going anywhere but up, and they've already gone up 20% in my town in the past 4 years.

Next house I own is going to be a yurt or a tipi.

knewbetter says

It’s not the mortgage that’s killing me, but the taxes. I can’t see taxes going anywhere but up, and they’ve already gone up 20% in my town in the past 4 years.
Next house I own is going to be a yurt or a tipi.

Actually my taxes went down $600 since I brought my house.

I know this won't help now. But in the future don't use listing agents. Just sell yourself. Plenty of MLS websites out there, and putting a listing is usually very cheap if not free.

Hi guys.
I am very bad with the computer so I can't figure out how to start a new thread. I saw something in TechGromit's post that I wanted to ask about. I have listed my home with a realtor; she seemed nice enough when we started. We are in pre-foreclosure so we felt that we wouldn't have much of a choice since we have equity in the house and wanted to walk away with something. She keeps trying to get me to accept offers that are anywhere from 50K-100K less than our asking price. A few days ago, she convinced me that we'd have to take something or we wouldn't sell at all so we accepted the offer. We are not in contract yet though. At the same time i've been talking to the bank and i FINALLY got a payoff figure from the bank's attorney. If we actually sell to the buyer whose offer we accepted, we will have barely have anything left. My question is, since it's so much below asking price, can the realtor still force me to sell? Would I owe her or the buyer anything? From browsing the web, I see that most people say that I only owe the broker something if she produces a buyer who offers asking price, but is that the same in all states? I don't want to fire her; I just want to wait to see if we can get a better offer. The house has only been listed for less than 2 weeks. I really appreciate any advice you guys can give. I'd ask the lawyer, but all of the lawyers in our town are affiliates of our broker and I just don't feel comfortable.

^ read your listing contract.

Audrey nothing anyone can tell you here will be of conclusional help because none of us know what kind of contract you have signed. And I'm assuming you can't just read the contract you signed?

Talk to a lawyer, most provide free advice. All lawyers in the world can't possibly be affiliated with your broker.

sorry to bother you guys. I read over the contract, but it is too vague. I do have an appointment with a lawyer for Monday, but I was so anxious and couldn't sleep. I was just hoping that someone could relate their own experience so I'd have a ballpark idea. Thanks anyway though

Try not to freak out, Monday comes soon enough.

TechGromit says

knewbetter says

It’s not the mortgage that’s killing me, but the taxes. I can’t see taxes going anywhere but up, and they’ve already gone up 20% in my town in the past 4 years.
Next house I own is going to be a yurt or a tipi.

Actually my taxes went down $600 since I brought my house.

Mine have gone up by $2000. That's the NH Advantage!

In Oct. 2007 we purchased a house for 400k, with a 5.5% fixed rate mortgage with 60k down and have since refinanced it into a 4.99% fixed rate mortgage.

TechGromit says

knewbetter says

It’s not the mortgage that’s killing me, but the taxes. I can’t see taxes going anywhere but up, and they’ve already gone up 20% in my town in the past 4 years.

Next house I own is going to be a yurt or a tipi.

Actually my taxes went down $600 since I brought my house.

Mine have gone up by $2000. That's the NH Advantage!