Question about NJ Residential Listing Agreement (real estate, broker, house)

[Patticake55]

I signed a NJ Residential Listing Agreement for a six month term. It will expire in March. I have no problem with the realtor. He is doing his job. He advertised it, and I've had showings, including one that included an offer which fell through (buyer backed out, deposit returned to him, my deposit on house contingent on proceeds returned to me).

I've decided that I don't want to sell my house. Can I simply call or write the realtor and ask him to remove my listing and the lock box because I don't want to sell the house anymore? I don't want to list with someone else. I just don't want to sell.

Can I do that without owing him money? There is absolutely nothing in this contract concerning my right to simply take my home off the market.

Help??

[ventakas]

I used to hold a NJ real estate license. You absolutely can remove your listing at any time, for any reason without oweing any money.

However, if you sell it before the contract is up, the realtor is owed his fee.

HTH!

[Kevin1975]

You can request he take the home off the market and it doesn't cost you anything unless you had something in your agreement with him, which I doubt.

The Realtor will most likely have it withdrawn conditionally. The conditions being if you sell within that time frame you had in the original agreement, you would owe him his commission or you can't list with another broker until that original listing agreement expires.

[manderly6]

This discussion has come up on the Real Estate forum a few times. Some contracts actually do have something in them that may indicate some kind of fee is owed for this type of thing (keep in mind this probably wasn't in NJ).

Best thing is to just talk to your realtor and see what they say. Worst case scenario is you leave the listing up and then refuse all showings.

[Patticake55]

It's only a two-page agreement and I see nothing at all concerning what happens if you withdraw the property from the market. It just talks about owing the realtor a commission if the house is sold after the contract expires to someone who viewed the house during the contract period. That's fair.

Thank you all for putting my mind at rest!

[andrew.mensch]

Typically, if you discuss this with the Realtor and his/her manager they will take the house off the market, but will hold you to the contract period as mentioned above... that includes not listing with another Realtor during that time period.

Ask nicely, as in other situations, it will get you more than being nasty about it.