Mutual agreement to terminate the agency agreement, renunciation by the agent or revocation by the principal (In NY, the principal acting in good faith always has the power to cancel a listing at any time. The principal may, however, be required to reimburse the broker for expenses if the principal cancels before the agency's expiration. Damages could be awarded to the agent if the principal acted in bad faith.) Incompetence can include, but is not limited to; making any substantial misrepresentation (defined as a false statement or the concealment of a material fact, done in order to induce someone to take a certain action, whether done, maliciously, ignorantly, or carelessly)
Failing to immediately deliver duplicate or original documents to an interested party in a transaction.
Obtaining a license falsely or fraudulently or making a material misstatement in the license application.
Aggravating the agency relationship of another.
Giving legal opinions
Discriminating
Engaging in improper, fraudulent, or dishonest dealing
etc.
Real estate agents must be knowledgeable about their products; that is, the property and its surrounding area, including any geographic and topographic peculiarities. When listing a property, agents must exercise due diligence when inspecting the premises.

Hi Ulredbirds--

It sounds like (from previous questions) that you have lost faith in your agent's ability to negotiate for you. While that is possible, I would first advise you to call him/her and tell him what you think should be happening as opposed to what is happening. I see that you are (or were) negotiating on a bank owned property. Please keep in mind that when you're dealing with an institution, things take longer, there's very little communication between the bank and agents, and your agent doesn't have any control over that. The only clout you have is to put a deadline on your offer and walk away if they don't respond in your timeframe. If you don't like your agent's response, call his broker. If you don't like anybody's explanation, and you didn't sign an "exclusive buyer agreement", then just tell him goodbye and find someone else (provided, of course, that you don't have some offer on the table somewhere that he helped you write). If you did sign an exclusive buyers agreement, you're going to have to get him to release you.

The other questions you asked seem to indicate that you're frustrated that there are other offers being negotiated while they are negotiating with you. The key word here is "negotiating". Until you have an accepted contract, anybody can come in with a better offer (or even a worse offer) and the seller can try to get the highest sales price out of them (or you). There's nothing illegal or unethical about this, especially when they tell you that there are other offers on the table.

You also wondered about the validity of whether there really were other offers on the table. My best guess would be that if the bank is saying to give them your highest and best because there are multiple offers, there probably are multiple offers. If it's not a bank owned property (or short sale), and you're dealing directly with the seller through their agent, then it is possible that someone isn't being entirely truthful. It's risky business on the part of the listing agent and seller to do this, though, because half the time, the buyer they're trying to motivate to raise their offer just backs out of the negotiations because they're averse to getting into a "bidding war". No real way of knowing for sure, they don't have to prove it unless it's a "First Right of Refusal" clause contract and that doesn't sound like what you have.

If this is a fantastic deal and/or a superior house, it's reasonable to assume others think so too. If you really want it, offer your "highest and best" and see what happens. If you get it, great. If you don't, keep looking. With thousands of houses on the market, there's bound to be another one out there that makes your heart pound.

Best of luck.

Louise Warring,
Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate

Can you elaborate on what you feel they are doing wrong? If you have a serious issue with your agent I suggest you speak their broker.



-Sean