Cancel a Brokerage Listing Agreement
Sellers and agents enter into a listing agreement in the hopeful expectation that the house will sell quickly for a fair price that everyone can feel good about, with the agent earning a commission for her active role in getting the house sold and closed. Unfortunately, that does not always happen. The language of broker's listing contracts varies from state to state, but there are always provisions that allow one or both parties to cancel the contract. There are ways to cancel a brokerage listing agreement before it expires.
Instructions
1. Check the exact language of your contract. Most include a provision to terminate the contract by mutual consent.
2. Send a letter to the listing agent's company broker and include the reason you wish to be let out of the contract early without being insulting. Most brokers know that you can't have a successful outcome with a client that does not want to work with you and will agree to terminate the contract.
3. Look for any fees required with termination, like a fee to pull the listing from the local listing service. Figure that any charge the broker has to pay to terminate your listing will be charged to you since there was no commission paid because the house was not sold.
4. Check to make sure that the agreement does not have an early termination fee or allow the agent to recover marketing costs. If so, your broker will not agree to terminate the listing until you pay the fee.
5. Have a face-to-face discussion with the broker if you are not getting any results with being let out of your contract. Let the broker politely know that you will be sharing your experience with others. No one wants negative publicity and word-of-mouth.
6. Ask for another agent if there is a fee or you can't terminate the contract, but are unhappy with the agent. Technically the agreement is between you and the brokerage company, with your agent acting as a representative. They can assign it to another agent if you are unhappy and the brokerage company do not want to lose your listing.
