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!