Lawyers: Do I have grounds to sue my CRE agent?

[Carl E.]

I am a younger (30yo) real estate investor with relatively limited experience buying and selling commercial real estate. I purchased a small (~40 space) mobile home park several years ago (my first CRE purchase), and after a lot of work I determined in June of 2016 that I should explore the possibility of selling the property. I called a broker who had sold some property for my dad and she was quick to get me set up with a listing agreement, etc. At the time I had the nagging thought that I may be selling the property a little too soon, because I had 4 or 5 units that were *almost* ready to rent after putting tens of thousands of dollars into them (it's painfully obvious now, I know!). I had expressed this sentiment multiple times to the broker (all she does is mobile home parks), looking to her to give me some guidance or thoughts, which she avoided.

When I initially listed the property for 650k around June/July 2016, the agent was telling me it was too high. She did not send me any offers for a couple months, so I assumed she must be correct and it must be too high (this was my first CRE sale), leading me to call her and have her drop the price to 600k, which she gladly did without offering any input.

She soon after presented me with two offers: one for full or close to full price offer, but with me carrying the note (no way!). The second was for 545k, which I was forcefully and actively pressured to accept. She even had one of her employees call me to admonish me to "take the money and run" because there was "no way" the buyer would accept a counter offer. Lots of pressure on all sides. Anyway, despite my inexperience I felt that my asking price was reasonable, so I stuck to my guns and we settled for 590k.

Imagine my surprise when I found it relisted about two months later for 850k. I requested info on the listing and found that my buyer had 1) rented out the homes I fixed up, 2) raised the lot rent by $25, and 3) submetered the water. I later found out it had ultimately sold for "just over 700k" (according to the listing broker) some time in August 2017.

Sidenote: I paid her an 8% commission on the sale back in October, which she said was "a deal" because her "usual commission was 10%." I did not realize that normal was actually closer to 6% for this type of transaction.

So, in conclusion, I feel that:

1) she did not advise me properly as to the correct timing and best positioning of the property for sale

2) she attempted to pressure me into a sale that was clearly below market (the 545k offer)

3) she overcharged me on the commission

4) she did not market the property properly (she claimed to have sent it to "thousands" of people on her "buyers list," but I couldn't even find the park on loopnet for the first couple months)

My gut feeling says that this was just a very expensive way to learn "seller beware," because I know that commercial real estate doesn't have the same kind of seller protections as residential, but do I have any grounds for a valid claim?

[Matt K.]

1) she did not advise me properly as to the correct timing and best positioning of the property for sale
Define proper? She may not of acted in your best interest (opinion) but I'd feel like you'd be hard pressed to prove this since you reached out to her to sale it.

2) she attempted to pressure me into a sale that was clearly below market (the 545k offer) 
You'd need proof, how would you show a court that it was below market? People  buy things all the time to turn a profit on, it might suck, but not sure how'd you prove it was "below" market.

3) she overcharged me on the commission

Unless there is/was some maximum she could charge and it was over that you both agreed to the commision. 

4) she did not market the property properly (she claimed to have sent it to "thousands" of people on her "buyers list," but I couldn't even find the park on loopnet for the first couple months)
Not sure what one has with the other. What did your contract state, plenty of deals happen every day that aren't listed. Again, how are you going to prove she didn't do what she was supposed to do? Where did it state in writing/your contract that she was to do xyz and you have documentation that she didn't.

From the sounds of it and as harsh as it is to here it sounds like you let personal relationship override a business relationship. Sounds like she wasn't a good fit multiple times yet you still moved forward with it...