My listing agent has gone six months without one showing update unless I text first

Question

So I'm on the passive side and still in the prep phase, not selling anything yet, but I bought a small condo in Cleveland last year thinking I might list it this spring. Hired an agent in October, signed a six-month agreement, and between October and now I've had maybe four emails from her that I didn't initiate. No showing feedback, nothing on price adjustments, no update when comparable units on the same floor sold in December for $214k and mine is listed at $229k. I found out about those comps myself on Zillow. When I finally got her on the phone in January she said the market was slow and left it there. I'm two weeks from the six-month mark and I'm trying to figure out if walking at that point is clean or if there's language in the agreement that keeps me tied to her on any deal that originates from a buyer she supposedly introduced, even if I never heard a name. The agreement has a 90-day tail clause and I don't fully understand what counts as an introduction under it. Has anyone actually terminated at the end of a listing period and then had a former agent claim commission on a buyer who came in afterward?

marisol_vega · Answer

The 90-day tail is the part that can bite you, and whether it does depends entirely on how "introduction" is defined in your specific agreement. Some contracts require the agent to have actually shown the property to that buyer, others just need the buyer to have "inquired," which is vague enough that an agent can argue almost anything fits. Before you hit that six-month mark, I'd request in writing a full list of every buyer her office has contacted or shown the unit to, with dates. If she can't produce names and dates, it's very hard for her to enforce the tail on someone she can't document introduced.

The thing I'd want to know is whether your agreement spells out what "introduced" means or if it's left undefined, because that's where the dispute lives if one ever comes.

nick_valdez3 · Answer

The tail clause language is what matters, specifically whether it says "introduced" or "procuring cause." Those are different standards and agents have lost commission claims when they couldn't prove they actually connected a specific buyer to the property, not just that the buyer existed during the listing period.

In practice I've seen sellers ask the agent for a written list of every buyer she claims contact with before the agreement expires, so the universe of protected buyers is defined on paper before day one of the tail period. If she can't name them she probably can't enforce it.

On the $229k vs $214k gap, that's the real problem eating your time. Six months of carrying costs on a $15k pricing miss is already money gone.

My listing agent has gone six months without one showing update unless I text first

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