Someone just posted a great site - see the link below

Here is a link that might be useful: Consequences of Backing Out of a Deal

roselvr,

I think that applies only if there is a contract to purchase in place, not just a listing agreement.

My aunt and uncle had their home on the market several years ago and my uncle passed away only a few weeks into the listing. The listing agent was very understanding and pulled the listing off the market for my aunt. Likewise only a year ago my brother had his house listed and had an accident which left him unable to work for a few months. Their listing agent was also very understanding about pulling the listing. Talk to your agent and explain the circumstances. Hopefully he/she will understand.

That is a useful site, but I have only signed a listing agreement, I haven't had any offers yet on my home so I would not be backing out of a purchase contract.

Should I offer to reimburse the realtor for expenses she has incurred thus far? ( I believe her expenses have been minimal, MLS listing fee, one or two local realty magazine advertisements and I think that's about it...I can't quite describe her as a "go-getter") but I don't want her to lose money because I end our listing agreement early.

Thanks!
Jiggreen

As a realtor, if one of my clients called me under these circumstances, I would immediately agree to remove the listing. You are kind to offer to pay the expenses incurred thus far. Very often realtors work and work and work for nothing. In my case, (and I can only comment on my own expenses) I think I wouldn't worry about the expenses I had. This business is a gamble. I would however appreciate you giving my name to anyone you know. One or two sales from your friends/family would more than make up for the expenses.

Just a thought, perhaps the agent saw this coming? Maybe the reason not the real go getter you thought you hired?

Yes, I'm assuming that your agent communicates with you weekly. And trust me, after today, I'm as ready to bash lame agents as anyone on this board.

OMG! Call your Realtor in the morning and tell him/her that you are taking the house off the market! And that's that. The Realtor will understand. It is your home and you are staying. If your situation changes then you'll clal the Realtor back. Period. Don't show the house this weekend.

Yes you can take the house off the market, just call him/her and said due to medical issues we have decided to take the house off the marker per Doctor's recommendation. No, I cannot show the house and we thank you for the time you put into the possible sale. Agents are expected to put a certain amount into the sale and if they don't get it, this is part of their expenses in this field. Just a nice Thank you would be appropriate. If they give you a hassle, which I don't think they will, contact your dr.

rrah, what happened today?

I'd let you withdraw and cancel the listing anytime under these circumstances, every agent should.

I'm sorry for your troubles, and I wish you the best. Your agent will probably feel the same way.

Thank you for all of the responses, I will call my realtor in the morning and ask her to please cancel our listing.

:) jiggreen

I agree with all the others. I would most definitely remove your house from the market. And referrals are the best compensation. Better to get it done now and cancel the showing.

Happens all the time...call your agent. This should alleviate some stress. Good luck to you and yours.

I think that applies only if there is a contract to purchase in place, not just a listing agreement.

There are more pages at the link, I was a bit rushed due to dinner being ready. I'd seen one page that mentioned offering the listing agent reimbursement for any expeses.

Because of all of this, I no longer want to sell our home, not until we find out what is going on with my husband's health and see how well our finances work on less $$$ coming in per month... Our home is currently still on the market and our listing agreement is not set to expire until mid-May.

What would happen if say the OP finds that they do need to sell after all due to not being able to keep up due to financial issues. How long after calling the listing agent are they really under contract? Would it still be May? From what I was told in NJ, it all depends on the contract.

Forgot to say I'm sorry about what you're going through. My husband works for Allied, a company that's been having financial problems. Every time we turn around, Allied wants to cut more pay.

I just left the realtor a message explaining that I do not want to show the house on Saturday, that instead I need to talk to her about taking the house off the market due to my husband's health and financial problems. I have asked her to please call me, and I am waiting to hear back from her. Whew, I do feel better now, and I want to thank you all so much for encouraging me to bite the bullet and call the realtor.

Also I want to thank you all for the good wishes for our family. My husband is doing fairly well, he has to do another thallium stress test this coming Tuesday. (when they tell you NO caffeine for 24 hours prior to the test, they also mean no DECAF coffee...apparently it has some caffeine in it still, so he had to reschedule his last test) I'll feel a lot better (I hope!!) after we get the results from this stress test, right now I kind of want to just keep him in a happy little decaffeinated stress-free bubble....lol.

roselovr, sorry to hear about your husband's trouble with Allied....when they want to cut his pay, how do you fight back? We basically just had to take whatever my DH's employer dished out to us. My DH was originally on an hourly salary, was working a minimim of 20 hours overtime per week since he took his current position (he's had this position now for about 18 months and when they offered this position to him the agreement they worked out was based on a 40+20 guaranteed hour work week...but it was just verbal, not in writing). In mid December my husband got a memo, which started off something like "Due to excessive overtime...."
Anyway, the memo outlined his new pay structure which basically took him off of hourly plus OT and put him on a salary. He told them he could not work 60+ hours per week for the salary they were willing to pay him, so he cut his hours down and found a part time job to make up the difference. The week prior to starting his new part time job, he told me he was having severe chest pains. I took him to the ER and they hooked him up to that machine (EKG?) and the alarms were going off, and lights were flashing and people rushing around. He was having a bad arrhythmia with high PVC runs and Vtach, and needed iv meds to stabilize his heartbeat. It was horrible and sitting in the hospital that night I wasn't sure I'd still have a hubby in the morning.

Since that night, I have pursuaded my husband to turn down the part time job and I have increased my hours at work to try to make up some of the lost income and take some pressure off of him. We are in the process of reworking our budget to be more mindful of how we spend our money and I'm proud to say that both DH and I quit smoking four weeks ago (that's a savings of $350.00 per month!!).

My new motto is "make do". There really wasn't a reason for us to sell our home...it's large enough for us(especially with our 18 year old headed off to college in the fall). We really just wanted to move to a different (translation......"prettier") neighborhood. The last few months have made it crystal clear to me that it's not worth risking your health just because you're ready for a change of scenery when you look out your kitchen window. I'll take my old view and my not-so-old husband!!

Sorry for such a long posting!

Thanks again to all of you!

Jiggreen

We listed in November also and actually backed out of our contract 15 days early as we were unhappy with the agent. The only thing to consider is in the listing agreement there may have been a clause that basically translates to this, "If you sell your house in the next X days to someone that I introduced you to (in any form), you owe the broker the full commission".

I can really understand why you want to pull-off market but reimburst agent? Why? If house has been for sale since November and not yet sold, they are not doing their job! Either they are not being honest with you about the true value of your home or are not aggressively marketing, etc. To me a good agent is quite simply someone that can sell your house.

Jiggreen, I wish you and your h all the best.

One bit of advice though, if at some point you do decide to sell your home, only sign a three month listing. You can always relist with the same agent if you are happy with the him/her but feel s/he just needs more time to get your home sold. But if you are unhappy for ANY reason, you are out of there! (Learned this the hard way.)

Good luck jiggreen -- hope your hubby gets well. A friend of mine just bought a new house because she wanted a change of scenery, after the fact she discovered that the larger house payment wasn't worth it, but now she's stuck. It's really not a good thing any of this happened to you, but at least it happened before you were saddled with a bigger house payment.

Right now there isn't a lot we can do. My husband is an owner / operator, drives a car carrier. They pretty much froze his pay, and want to eliminate all future wage increases / cost of living increases. Eliminate all future health, welfare and pension increases and want to do away with health insurance. They had a slow month last month, so now that there's more work, he's been working 6 / 7 days a week. Very hard with you're hubby sitution, since it was verbal. Once the shock wears off, he'll be fine. Who knows, maybe it will motivate him to look elsewhere.

I see you have a son that's gonna go to college. Have you started the process of trying to find grant money? The best advice I can give you is to make sure he is mature enough to go. My son went and dropped out, he wasn't ready. Big waste of money.

Jiggreen, you and your husband have done a wonderful, difficult thing. You quit smoking! Nothing your DH could do for his health is more effective than that. It's obvious the two of you have also decided to concentrate on what really matters in life: love for each other and health. Kudos.

There is a lot you can do to restore heart health. Now that you have quit smoking, you can concentrate on diet, exercise, perhaps a glass of good red wine or a bit of dark chocolate every day.

It's both sad and infuriating that so many middle class people who have always played by the rules and done the right thing are facing economic insecurity. Thank goodness you have each other.