In a dispute with the listing agent...what would you do?

[Brian Stutzman]

I have a family member who listed a property and the agent put in additional wording on the listing contract (it has an additional paragraph in our state for additional terms).   As the listing was coming up to expire we said lets have you buy it and the agent said he was starting that then went radio silence.  So we set up a meeting with the agent and broker and they completely backtracked and said they do not do this type of thing, picked apart the wording,  and the broker said that we are interpreting things differently than they do, and they had no interest in buying it, while the agent was looking at the floor and did not say anything.  We are considering arbitration, and the local real estate board offers that for a small set fee, but are we going to get a fair shake there because these guys might be friends with the broker?  It is a $192K deal.  Thoughts?