Archive for June, 2009
One thing you should not do is cooperate with a seller who has listed his or her home with a broker but now wants to deal directly with you in order to avoid paying the broker’s fee. It sometimes happens: the broker shows you a house, you express an interest in it, and then the owner takes you aside or contacts you later and suggests that you wait a while, then make the deal on your own, cutting out the broker and the broker’s commission. And sometimes buyers themselves seize upon the temptations of the end run and propose it to sellers.
Either way, it’s not a good idea. For one thing, a court might view it as an attempt to defraud the broker. For another thing, you’ll find that most listing agreements between brokers and sellers specify that the commission is due in any case if the home is sold within a specified period after the listing has expired — no matter who sells it — if the buyer saw the property during the listing period. So even if the ethics don’t bother you, the legal implications should.