Need advice on real estate agent (sales, fee, realty, agreement)

[ScotiaGirl]

Here's our dilemma,
We flip houses and "sort of" partnered with a real estate agent in the area (we're new in the area). Now, we think he's kind of shady, getting to know him a bit better. I'm worried he does not serve our best interest.
Here's the other dilemma: We're about to put our house on the market, but, we are thinking we should do it privately to save money. There's a great private realty here, which gets many hits on the website. We feel confident that we will sell.

We haven't signed an agreement with this agent to sell. He has helped us buy about 4 different properties so far. We feel we are giving him good service.

So, a few specific questions are:
1) Can we back out of having him sell for us to keep $13,000 in our pocket, but, continue to ask to work with him for buying? Our carrying costs on the home is not much at all! To not even sell for 3 or 4 months would be nothing compared to the $13000. Again, no contract has been signed. Just expectations on his part and "talk" about putting it on the market. So far, he has not done anything (that we know of) to sell our home.
2) Is this ethical? Is it okay to use an agent to help us buy but not sell?

I suppose you would ask why we would use him if he's shady. Well, until I get my own real estate license (a plan in the near future), we don't want to just kick him to the curb.

Any thoughts? Sorry if this post is a bit muddled. I should mention we live in Canada so I don't know if things would be different than the States.

Thanks in Advance!

[middle-aged mom]

You would be under no obligation to use him to sell properties in my area, which is not Canada.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like your primary objective is to save $13K and his being potentially shady /untrustworthy may be your rationalization for doing so, else you would not want to continue to work with him, going forward on the buy side.

I am not familiar with the term, private realty. I am thinking this is the equivelent of flat fee realty in the U.S. Getting hits on a private web site does not mean anything unless those hits turn into sales. How does this web site compare to the Canadian MLS?

Putting aside for the moment, saving $13K, does it make sense to ask both and maybe even a third company to present their marketing proposals to you and decide then, what makes the most sense. Pay attention to the percentage of homes listed with the private agency that close while listed with that agency?