 Dear George: Does listing your house in the MLS legally require you to sell it if you receive an offer?
Answer: No, but before you put your property in the multiple listing service, you should be certain that you intend to sell; it's not fair to waste the listing REALTOR®'s time. Situations and circumstances do change, however. If you change your mind, immediately notify your listing REALTOR® so he can withdraw your listing from the MLS. Should you sell during the listing period (just removing the listing doesn't cancel the listing agreement), you may still owe your REALTOR® a fee or a commission. Also, not accepting a full-price offer with acceptable terms from a qualified buyer might constitute a default to the listing agreement on your part, and you might owe a commission to your agent.
Dear George: Last Friday we tried to put a house under contract by submitting a bid to the selling real estate agent. He did not accept our bid because he has verbal agreement with somebody else. He hasn't received a written contract from this other party and said he will contact us if that falls through. Is this legal? Is this some sort of sales strategy on his part?
Answer: A listing agent is required by Texas law (Section 536.156 (a) of the Rules of the Texas Real Estate Commission) to submit all offers received to the owner of the listed property unless that owner has already accepted an offer. You would be doing the listing agent a favor by informing him of this and resubmitting your offer. You might also send a form along with the offer requesting the signature of the seller affirming that the listing agent submitted the offer to the seller. If the listing agent still refuses to allow you to deliver the offer to them, you can file a complaint with the Texas Real Estate Commission and, if he is a REALTOR®, report the incident to Texas Association of REALTORS® Professional Standards Department at 800/873-9155.
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Dear George: How do you foreclose on a contract for deed? I've had three different real estate "experts"—two attorneys and a REALTOR®—tell me three things. The buyer has disappeared and I've had no luck locating this person.
Answer: Sec. 5.064 of the Texas Property Code provides for rescission, forfeiture, and acceleration only if: The seller notifies the purchaser the seller's intent to enforce the remedy and the purchaser's 30-day right to cure as set out in 5.065 of the Texas Property Code; the purchaser fails to cure the default within the 30-day period; and less than 40% of the amount due (or less than 48 monthly payments) has been paid to the seller. There are exceptions depending on amounts paid down, and the notice requirements are very specific. They are set out in Sec. 5.063 of the Property Code. Next time, use a deed and deed of trust. They are much easier to use in foreclosures.
Dear George: Negotiations to sell a residence are at a standstill until the issue of commissions that may be owed to a broker from a previous sales contract is clarified. Years ago, a broker engaged to sell a residence was unsuccessful, so the owner asks the broker to rent the property. This broker, through another broker, succeeds in finding a tenant for a one-year lease. The listing broker gets a commission equal to one month's rent from the tenant and splits that with the other broker, who found the tenant. After the lease expires, the tenant stays for several years without signing a new lease, and is now considering whether to buy the property.
If there is no agreement between the seller and the broker to sell the property and the agreement between the leasing broker and the other broker specifically excludes another fee for any month-to-month renewal, will the owner be obligated to pay a selling commission to one or the other brokers initially involved if no broker is hired now by the seller?
Under this scenario, is the original contract between the broker and the seller to sell the property still in place even though it appears that the leasing arrangement probably was intended to supersede the selling arrangement? The seller does not have a copy of the original broker agreement to sell the property.
Answer: The Residential Real Estate Listing Agreement – Exclusive Right to Sell is more than likely the form that was used to authorize the broker to attempt to sell the property. Unless a special provision was added in Section 15 or the blank space provided in Section 5A(2) was completed covering lease commissions payable to broker in the event the subject property was leased, the original listing for sale is pre-empted by the fact that the sale became a lease and the seller complied with the lease commissions agreed to by both brokers. This is especially true if the original listing agreement expired. It would also be true if no commission were provided in the event the subject property was leased as is the case in the current Residential Real Estate Listing Agreement - Exclusive Right to Sell.
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