Exclusive agent contract

[Heidi Vitela]

Hi all! Found myself in a bit of a pickle and needing advise. I had a friend whom is an agent, offer to be my mentor as I build an REI career. However, I have found that his performance is lagging. I was finding my own houses, running comps, Doug a lot of the work. The final straw was losing a few good multifamilies bc he was dragging his feet in contacting sellers agents, putting offers in. He would continuously spell my name wrong in forms/contracts or have errors that I had to point out..there is much more but for sake of not being long winded, here is my pickle: unknowingly, I signed an exclusive agents contract for 1 year.. it was tucked in a Docusign on a contract to a property that never worked out. I am pretty green to RE so I didn't know about these and he never explained. I trusted him and initialed on the dotted lines in haste. I parted ways with him after deal fell thru and I have texts/emails that I told him he was not performing his duties (very diplomatically tho) and I would be working with another agent. He then texted me ‘we now have no relationship to maintain' . Fast forward 3 months.. he sends an email that I owe him commission on a MF I have in contract (now this is when I discover I signed something, had no clue until then nor did her tell me I did or was in breach prior). His broker is being a pain and said I ought to seek legal help, although I stumped his broker when I told him I have his agents text to me essentially terminating our relationship (as mentioned above). Does anyone know if his text can be considered a legal documented termination or has any one else been in similar situation? Any advice is appreciated. I'm a single mom with young child and 90 yr old mom I care for with a lower income job, I've spent most my savings on this purchase and would lose thousands if sellers back out or commission is owed. I really value everyone's opinion so anything helps, thanks!

[Russell Brazil]

Let him and the broker know that the agent violated the NAR Code if Ethics Article 1, Stanfard of Practice 1-13 and Article 9, and Standard of Practice 9-2 by failing to explain each form he sent you to sign.

Though to be perfectly honest, the agent you are using may have also violated the Code of Ethics by working with you if he knew you were previously working with another agent and did not attempt tk ascertain if you had a buyer agency agreement with someone else. So that could get a little sticky.