Can A Wholesaler Put A House Under Contract For A Year?

[Lee Bailey]

I have a situation where a owner called me about a house he wants to sale. After arriving at the owners house, the owner tells me that he has the house under contract with a broker.The contract is for a year and is up in Feb of next year. This broker has had it under contract since Feb, this year. The broker made the owner sign an agreement not to talk about or disclose anything about the price of the house. The owner was ask to point all interested potential buyers to this broker. After talking to the owner for a while a lot of things didn't add up to me. So, i looked for the the listing on the MLS, it doesn't exist and was never listed by the broker...So i got the broker name and number as if i was interested in buying . I called him not letting him know that was inquiring about the house in question but that i was looking to buy in a whole other area just for conversation to ask questions. So i asked him if he was a realtor or broker, he says no he's an investor, which basically means wholesaler talk. So turns out, the owner actually thinks he dealing with a broker because that's what he identified his self as.

So my question is , can this guy legally put this house under contract for a whole year, and post the property on zilliow as if hes the owner? The owner wants to sell but thinks he cant budge because of this contract with this so called broker who hasn't done anything with the property/contract and has tied the owners house up for a year. Also am i in the wrong if i was to purchase this house from underneath the wholesaler who's clearly taken advantage of an elderly  person.