Realtor threatening to sue me

[Melissa Daugherty]

I lived in AL. We used a realtor to sell our previous home. We sgned a contract that she verbally went through as we were signing it but never provided a copy. She stated that if we were unhappy with her selling the home, we could end the contract but couldn’t list the home for 6 months. She briefly brought up that if she finds a home for us to buy she would give us a break by only charging 5% commission. It didn’t take long before we realized that she was inept at finding something we liked or in negotiating offers. She wrote 2 offers, both for homes that we ourselves found but that she could never get the deal on and the offers fell through. 

We told her that we didn’t want to look any further and she stopped sending us any listings for 20 days and she went out of town. Because she poorly advised us on accepting any offer to close in 30 days, we were riding the roads for hours after work on on weekends trying to find a home. We finally found one and the builder agreed to allow us to move in before closing so that we didn’t have to go into a rental or store our belongings. 

I received an email from the broker and realtor demanding payment for commission fees for the sale of our new home. Now they have threatened us with a lawsuit. Is this legal since we told the realtor that we didn’t want to look at any more homes with her anymore and she obviously understood that by not sending us any listings for 20 days. She came back into town just before our closing for our old house and sent me a link to a home (again in a neighborhood that we told her repeatedly that we didn’t like) and at that time I told her that we purchased one. She sent me a thumbs up emoji and then asked about our new home again in person. She said nothing about the fees or being owed anything. 

Can someone please advise on what to do? 

Thank you 

[Lynn McGeein]

Most of that doesn't sound right. Most listing contracts state that if you list with an agent, if both parties agree to cancel early but you then sell to someone they've shown it to within x days, you owe the commission. There is usually no commission involved unless it's to someone who saw it while listed. If you signed an exclusive buyer broker contract at the same time, not cancelled, then you would owe her a commission if you buy, no matter if you found it yourself or she found it for you during the term of that commitment. Believe me, I understand there are bad agents out there -- I've dealt with several. But this sounds like you may have signed contracts without reading through them. I sold a home to a buyer who ended up having to pay her agent 2% at closing because she didn't understand that she had signed an exclusive buyer broker agreement, even though the agent wouldn't even contact me to show my house because I was a FSBO. The buyer's mother called me, and they negotiated terms with us directly. The agent then called me, even after her client committed to paying her 2%, stating that I owed her another 1% because her standard fee was 3%, so I should pay the difference between what her buyer negotiated with her and what she felt she was owed, even though she never even showed my home. I refused to pay it, even if it cost me the sale.