If you know a homeowner who’s thinking of putting their home on the market just to see what they can get for it, you may want to encourage them to think twice.
With recent home prices up 100% and more, some homeowners have put their homes up for sale just to see what happens. They don’t really mean to sell–unless they get outrageous offers. They’re doing it “for the fun of it.”
If you know someone with that thought, here’s something to help them keep in mind. They may not be required to sell their house if they get offers, but (ethics aside) they may be on the hook for other fees, including their Realtor’s fee.
At play is an often-unnoticed clause in most listing agreements, which says that if your agent brings a legitimate offer, and you as the seller pull out of the contract for no reason, then you still owe the agent’s commission. This is to protect agents who put a lot of time and money into marketing a home.
Of course, all real estate rules are local, so what is true in one contract might not be true in another. Most Realtors will say that the clause is very rarely enforced, and only in the most grievous circumstances, perhaps where the agent went all-out to sell a hard-to-sell home, for instance.
If you or someone you know is thinking of selling, I’ll give you straight answers about what you should and shouldn’t do to get the most from your sale.