Need Your Help To Settle A Fight Between My Wife And Me.
So I called about a property I found in the paper. A duplex the owner has bought a place in the country and the bank has told him to sell it or they will not provide him the cash to get his dream place. He has to have it sold by Dec. 1st. Anyway he tried to sell it on his own but got a call a few days ago from a realtor and now has listed it with them.
Here is where the fight is. I said that the seller can get out of his contract with the realtor and sell me the property but she says that he will get sued for doing that. So who's right? Can the owner dump the realtor and sell it straight out?
Any help would be great. I would hate to have to sleep on the coach this week... 
Thanks
The answer is ...it depends.
If the contract with the realtor says the contract may be cancelled without "cause", then he can get out. Some state that the realtor must be negligent in their efforts to market and sell the property. He may have expenses to reimburse the realtor for. Good luck.
The realtor must have a contract with the seller to list the property. It all depends on what the contract says.
What if the answer is...You are both right.
Yes, the seller can circumvent the real estate agent and sell the property directly to you.
Yes, if the seller does this, he may still owe the agent a full sales commission.
I have heard of instances where the buyer was sued for the sales commission by the real estate agent for tortius interference with a contract.