I recently had a victimizing experience with a Realtor and had to take him to Superior Court Pro Se for an injunction to release my home from his MLS Listing. The injunction was granted. However, the experience has made me realize how very little the laws protect us (the Consumer's) against Contracts, particularly the Realtor's Exclusive Right to Sell. I have since read the MA Board of Realtor's Code of Ethics and this offers no real protection to the consumer. The Board's Code of Ethics is about their ethics within their field among themselves. My case was not of Equitable Value; the Realtor was refusing to remove my home from his MLS Listing and I could not re-list it over a fee of $2,500.00. My home the hostage was going into foreclosure (it did) and I was facing a possible loss of $365,000.00. I had to waste the time in court removing my home from his MLS instead of having it listed and marketed. I have filed a complaint with the Board of Realtors against this person but would like to address some laws on this issue. If a Realtor is fired they should immediately release the Client's real property from their Listings. If the Realtor believes the Contract was wrongfully Breached the ominous should be on them to file for losses, not hold real property hostage so that the Client/Consumer is forced to seek relief. I am looking for some guidance to how I would address this. What is the criteria. Thank you.
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 11/26/2010 - 16:36
Posted in
Exclusive listing
Are you talking about getting released from an exclusive listing contract? I don't see how getting the house of the Multi Listing Service is relevant to your ability to market the home. Your contract with the broker is just that: a matter of contract law. If the contract expires or if the broker breaches the contract in some material way, you can move on to another broker.
If you are suggesting that the broker violated the law in some way then your options are to do what you did (file a complaint) or, possibly, depending on the facts, send a demand letter and follow up with an action under Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act (93A), seeking damages and attorneys fees.
Exclusive listing
I am not talking about ending my exclusive listing because I did do exactly that and I was given the injunction I needed. The MLS Listing was relevant because after firing the Realtor he refused to remove my home from the MLS and no other Realtor could list the home on their MLS. Basically the home could not be re-listed because another Realtor cannot list the same property on the MLS if it is already listed. The bank criteria is that property has to be listed by the Broker selling it on the MLS for short sale negotiations. I already have a Motion still pending against the first Realtor for Breach of Contract and may sue him down the road for my short fall.
The fact is that he prevented me from being able to list the home for over 2 weeks and the Foreclosure date was pending. Time was of an essence because the house was in foreclosure and the delay resulted in a short sale not being granted. The new Realtor I hired after the injunction was granted did present an offer to my bank but not in time to stop the foreclosure.
What I would like to know is how to prevent this happening to another Consumer and to enact some change in law because currently there are no laws that I can find that protect the Consumer against a Realtor refusing to co-operate, accept that he was fired, and release the property from MLS. I would not like to see this happen to another Consumer. I would like to see in a Contract such as this if a Consumer fires a Realtor they should accept that, release the MLS listing, and if they believe they were wrongly fired then they should be the one to take court action not hold Real Property hostage while the Consumer is forced to take court action.