what would you do?

last May I found a listing on MLS and contacted the listing agent. I then found out that the agent could not sell the property because he did not have the consent of all the owners. When I arrived at the property, there was a fsbo sign on the front lawn, no signage anywhere for the listing agent. I pleaded with the agent to let me try and contact the other owners since he wasnt doing anything with the property and he refused. Since I did not want to go behind his back , I walked away. It is now almost 4 months later and the property is still listed by this agent. The property needs a complete gut job, so no retail buyer would go near this.

A couple of options for you: approach the agent one more time and ask again. If that does not work, setup an appointment with the managing broker of the office to discuss it. If that does not work, contact the local board of Realtors (if they are a Realtor and not just an agent) and see if they might be able to help or at least look into it. If that does not work, you may want to contact the seller directly.

Hope that helps.

Sincerely,

James

Thanks James I had called the board of realtors with a general question wanting to know if an RE agent can list and show a property he/she can’t sell? To my surprise the answer was yes. does not make sense?

Is the agent your father that you need to have his permission to talk to people?

I’d just head over to the house and speak to the people who own it. Your agent won’t give you information, so go and get it elsewhere.

The one thing that is holding me back from talking to the owners and working out a deal is that if I do put the property under contract what are the possible complications (if any) that I should be prepared to deal with or be transparent about with my investor/buyer?

Just a guess. Maybe the sellers tried to cancel their listing. If they owe a commission because of their contract with the agent, then that is their problem.

Unless you signed some sort of exclusive agency with your agent that you must pay him a commission on anything you buy, no matter what it is or who found it. In that case, you’d owe the agent a commission.

Start with talking to the sellers and find out what their version of the deal is.

You took the words right out of my head. F__ that jerk realtor, he’s trying to tie the property up for God knows what reason. There’s no law saying you need his/her permission to speak to the owner of a house he’s listed. Heck you can even buy it without his permission, it’s not the realtor’s house! Here’s the deal though, if you buy it while it’s listed the realtor is entitled to a commission.

Thank you alll for the great input!

If a realtor shows you a property , is there a legal time frame by which he is entitled to a commission from the seller if we bypass him? Or is that depending on the contract he and the seller has? i.e if 5 months pass since showing a property and I aproach the seller directly do I need to tell the seller that she might owe her agent a commission.