Buyers Representation Agreement (agents, contract, fees, brokerage) - Real Estate Professionals - City-Data Forum

gnford · 03-17-2010, 05:53 PM

I am an agent. I've discovered that a client I had a Buyers Representation Agreement with bought a house through a Builder during the term of our contract without telling me. Only problem is that it was two years ago. Is there a statute of limitations on my recovery?

rjrcm · 03-17-2010, 06:08 PM

Check with your managing broker. Will depend on your state laws and willingness of your brokerage to pursue it.

Rakin · 03-17-2010, 07:32 PM

Well I see you made it to the right place. From my Dallas post

Quote:

Nothing you can do about it now or maybe even back then. I don't want to get to deep into it on a public forum but you are best to just use it as a learning event. If someone is not going to honor their word, they'll probably get to you someway.

Best to let it go and move on and take care of your future clients. If you want more detailed discussion on procuring cause start a thread over in the RE section for agents.

Even back then if you did not go to the builder with the buyer and introduce them to the property the builder would probably not pay you. You would have to sue the buyer to enforce your contract and IMO your broker probably would not want that. I doubt if you would win.

Over the years we all had similar situations, you just have to do the best possible to prevent. If a client wants to not honor their commitment, they will.

Most builders don't but a few of the lower quality ones will cut a deal if their is no agent. I know of maybe 3 out of 40 local builders who will. It's about the only way they can sell their poor quality homes. Most of the sales are to people who have moved to TX from other countries and naive in home buying. It's usually a culture of "The Cheapest Deal" and that's what the builder gives them on their disposable house.

Silverfall · 03-17-2010, 10:15 PM

As the other two agents have stated, unless you are the Principal Broker, it is not up to you to pursue. The brokerage would have to pursue collecting the fees.

nsumner · 03-18-2010, 02:34 AM

This does happen to all of us at some point. There is very little loyalty.

This happened to an agent from a previous brokerage I was with. Long story short, the broker backed him up 100% and he won a judgement against the buyer. You can call TREC about the statute of limitation.