Agents - What would you do? Seller wants out of his contract.

[Charlie MacPherson]

What would you do? Here's the scenario:

I helped a first-time rehabber to buy a house several months ago. Built in 1920, 4 beds, 2 baths, 2016 sq ft, master suite. It's in a very high end town near Boston. He financed it with hard money.

The fatal mistake is that he rebuilt it to its original layout.  The beds are small and all of the closets are really tiny - about 7 feet wide and maybe 2 feet deep.

Picture this: It's a rectangle. Across the north end is an eat-in kitchen.

Across the east side are 3 beds, one of which is extra small. There's a shared bath just outside the bed in the corner.

Across the west side is a master bed with master bath.  Both baths have tubs - no walk-in showers.

In the middle is a 750 sq ft (!!!) great room, with the original huge stone fireplace.

The basement is original and not full height. The stairs from the kitchen are a lot more like a ladder than steps, making it hard to use for much of anything, though there's a bulkhead too.

There are no other rooms. No storage - not even in the attic, because the blown-in insulation is deeper than the joists. Just beds, baths, kitchen and HUGE great room which is a colossal waste of space.

When we bought it, the comps said it should sell at $600,000, but due to the fact that he didn't do anything to make better use of the space, it's not selling. In fact, we've reduced the price in $25,000 increments and have been at $475,000 for 3 weeks. We're getting showings but no offers.

He's literally begging me to release him from our contract so he can sell it to a wholesaler. My counter offer is to let me present it to the wholesalers and reduce the commission, because there's none for a buyer's agent.

He's not happy with that. He still wants release.

Mind you, I've done 11 open house events so far, spent hundreds of dollars on FB and Google ads and put at least 1,500 miles on my car for this sale.  I have never put so much time, work and money into selling a property - not even close. 

I just feel like I've done way too much to walk away from a binding contract without compensation.

So what would you do?

KitchenMaster bedroomGreat room, Laundry on the left, shared bath on the right.

[Jay Hinrichs]

you posted this in a Hawaii forum ???  so I thought maybe you had something going on Oahu. 

that being said.. I would explain to him that if you just lower the price to what a wholesaler will pay you will find the same buyer and also let him know most wholesalers IF not ALL would never close this unless they find an end buyer.. 

But if the relationship is strained I personally would just walk away. I would never look at it like hey I did this and put all this time into it.. 

that's just the cost of doing business.. you make that up with the lay downs you get.. That you put small amount of time into.  

My wife always tells her clients that list with her that they can unilaterally cancel at any time for any reason.. Does it happen very infrequently like maybe 1 time in 2 or 3 years.. But it does help her land listings..