The same people who would say you have a duty to be moral and meet your financial obligations will accept, all day long, that "businsses" default on their bad investements as a matter of cutting losses and that's OK.

If through a listing broker it will depend on what the listing broker entered on the MLS and MLS rules.In Georgia for instance on FMLS if as a broker you screw up and enter commission wrong,mistake things etc. you can be on the hook for the commission or lose access to the MLS.MLS's are sometimes controlled by REALTOR associations and other times are private entities that are non-profits or for-profit organizations.Also the brokers/agents involved it would matter if they were REALTORS or not.Generally your state's real estate commission does not handle commission disputes.They only care about license laws.The agent can argue procuring cause with the other agent but it should not stop your sale.Simply you would close and get your proceeds and the commission in question would be froze until a solution was given and signed in writing or a court order.There are so many variables to this and it is state specific.Procuring cause is a chain of events leading up to a sale of a property.If the chain is broken generally the broker/agents is not due a commission.The moral of the whole story is the buyers agent needs to learn how to protect themselves in the future.I am not going to court to get my agents commission when I only charge them a 300 flat fee as a broker.No legal advice

I am not making a moral case out of this either as I would be thrilled if my low income neighborhood became gentrified.

Instead of attempting to keep a borrower on the constant edge of failure and earning less, it's actually more profitable in the long run to advance your borrower more like a partner than a servant.Many borrowers also assume they can't get conventional financing, while I know some HMLs point them in the right direction, I'm sure there are just as many who would allow that borrower to continue thinking that the HML is his only hope.With that, if HMLs were to address a better standard of ethical and moral conduct thier public standing would certainly improve, being known as a specialty lender than a "hard money" loan shark.

I would go myself and repeat the process of what he did and get the phone number, then do the deal if i could.Then, i would attend his meetings and tell everyone what a moral hazard he IS.I would then post about it here on BP.Then, I would pay a visit to him - Disclaimer - (this part is hypothetical of course)

This is a business, and while having morals and doing the right thing are important, numbers are the key, not emotions.

Moral of the story, think outside the box, serve those who are not served but can sell or buy.

If the answer to that question is "nothing" or isn't something significant, I'd suggest that each of you invest in your own (smaller) properties individually and work together to provide moral support for one another and strategic brainstorming sessions.

Moral of the story hear, you would not want to take a DIL as the first mortgagee from the borrower first, it would be a headache.

She will in no way be responsible for it.So the moral is dont try to hide things to 'get more than your share' or the like, and this probably only makes sense when both parties are getting along.Hope that helps someone out there.Dan Dietz