Finding the right realtor is so important; you don’t want to get stuck
with someone who isn’t willing or able to give you the best service in
selling your property. Buried in the Broker Fee section of the
contract is terminology that won’t let you fire your realtor or sell your
property yourself for a specified amount of time, even if the realtor sits
back and does absolutely nothing to sell your property.
In legalese (lawyer talk) the wording could be something similar to:
“the brokerage fee is payable if the property or any portion thereof or
any interest therein is, directly or indirectly sold, exchanged or
optioned or agreed to be sold, exchanged or optioned within _______ days
following expiration of the term hereof, to any person who has examined,
been introduced to or been shown the property during the term hereof.”
If you read something similar to the above statement written into the
contract that your realtor hands you, your first thought would probably
be, “What in the heck?!” Any intelligent person would most certainly
be excused for not realizing just how insidious that little paragraph
is.
Look at that paragraph closely. In plain English it says that you
have to pay the realtor’s commission if your property or any part of
your property changes hands to anyone who has seen or even heard about
your property. Whatever number is inserted in that blank
effectively allows the realtor to be paid if you or someone else sells your home
even after the contract has expired.
There are probably some unscrupulous people who hire a realtor and then
try to sell their property to someone the realtor has brought to them
without paying the realtor’s commission. This little clause protects
the realtor, but it also effectively stops you from firing an incompetent
realtor. Don’t allow this to happen to you. Make sure the number
written in that blank is either a big fat zero (0), or at most, 30 days.