Everyone has a rosy picture in their heads of what will happen once they hire a London, Ontario real estate agent to help them sell their homes. Buyers will be coming out of the woodwork, offers will fly far and fast, and the home will be sold in no time at all for a price significantly above the asking. However even in a good market like Kingston, Ontario, things don't always work out that way. Sometimes you may even have to consider ending your contract with your agent. Here are some things to consider when that happens.
There are certain circumstances under which it is reasonable to break a contract with a real estate agent and certain circumstances under which it is not. If you haven't had any interest in your Toronto Beaches real estate for months, by all means end it. But if it's only been a week or two or if you've gotten offers that you've rejected, the agent is doing his or her job. It is also not appropriate to end a contract with an agent because you've met someone you like better who promises to be able to get you more money or because you want to sell it yourself and save commission.
The thing you need to remember when you're considering ending your contract is that depending on the reasons you give for ending it, you may be penalized. When you first hire a real estate agent, you will have to sign a contract with him or her. Since realtors write these contracts up themselves, the terms are generally more favorable to them than to you. So before you take your Etobicoke real estate out of their hands, review your contract to make sure they can't stop you or sue you for fees. Ideally your lawyer should have reviewed the contract before you even signed it.
One common clause in a real estate agent's contract is if you break the contract, you can't hire anyone else to represent you for a certain period of time afterwards, which means your houses for sale in Markham will be off the market for a while. If you don't respect this period and sell the house before it is up, the agent can actually claim their commission from you even if they haven't done anything. This is to prevent people from having an agent find the buyer then firing the agent to keep from having to pay them.
That's not to say you can never break a contract. Contracts go both ways. If your agent does not live up to his end of the bargain (for example, finding someone to buy your Spokane, Washington houses for sale within a certain period of time) you are completely within your rights to terminate the contract. You can even insert your own clauses to protect yourself.
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