Be sure to go over your contract very carefully to determine if you have agreed to pay a fee for early termination of the contract. If not, request that your listing be withdrawn from the market. It should be understood that even though your home will be off the market, that will not necessarily sever your relationship with the listing company, so you will not be able to relist with another company without the hazard of paying 2 commissions should it sell.

Brian from Center Moriches was Right On! Read your contract!

I have seen some Realtor's contracts that contain an early termination fee of $500 in order to compensate them for advertising fees they've encountered on behalf of the seller's property.

I hope you have no such clause in your contract and wish you the best.

If you are not planning to sell the house any longer, there is no reason the Realtor would not agree to withdraw it from the market. No one can make you sell your home. It will probably be liable for a commission until the expiration date of the contract, but if you are not going to sell it, it should not matter.

Lorriane.....

Look carefully over your contract to check on fee's etc. Also, talk with your Realtor about your current situation and the changes that have come up during the process. Most Realtor's want to keep good will and would consider letting you out of the contract due to your situation. Bottom line is a good realtor does not want to sell you home if you do not want to sell it. Good luck

Hi Lorraine, I agree with keith. I would only add that if you did in fact sell or need to sell under the court's ruling, you could likely find another home in the area.

Best of Luck

Your contract will determine if there are fees or not. No Realtor can force you to keep your property actively on the market, but you could find yourself responsible for commisisons if you sell it on your own. That clause is common in lisitng contracts. Refer to your contract and your attorney

MOST TIMES THE BROKER/AGENT WILL BE ABLE AND WILLING TO REMOVE YOU AS AN ACTIVE LISTING.THIS WILL BE AT NO COST TO YOU AND YOUR PROPERTY WILL BE OFF THE MLS. THE BROKERAGE WILL STILL HAVE A PERIOD OF TIME IN WHICH YOU ARE OBLIGATED TO PAY THE AGREED FEE SHOULD YOU SELL AND CLOSE.MY OPINION WILL NOT HOLD WATER SHOULD YOUR LISTING AGREEMENT HAVE DIFFERENT LANGUAGE IN IT.

Just write a termination of contract and this should suffice. Fees would be listed in your agreement.

Lorraine
You've received the advice I would expect for someone in your situation. One thing to consider is what might happen if you are unable to keep the house?
I don't know your market, nor the details of your case, however you may want to consider keeping the home on the market while you are going through the judicial process. One advantage to having the home listed is that you will know the approximate fair market value.

If you were thinking of buying your husband's share of the home, you'd probably want to re-finance or use a home equity line of credit. Some lender's will not lend if your home is listed for sale, so I encourage you to look at all of the options. It is unfortunate, but it may turn out that selling the property is the only way to split the assets (unless of course you can negotiate that your husband will defer his share of the house until some future time...).

Best of luck to you and your family.

read your contract carefully! You have to live with in the 4 corners of that paper!! Talk to your agent if he is a good agent he will understand if they give you a hard time, then use some one else next time! good luck!

Hi Lorraine. You have already received a good answer regarding taking the house off the market. You may want to make sure that doing so does not get you into trouble. Was the sale of the house court ordered? Did your husband or ex-husband sign the listing agreement as well? Just a few things to consider. Are you planning on trying to buy your husband out? If you do, you may want to consider future tax implications. I don't know how much the house has appreciated since you bought it, but if it's more than $250,000, you may end up having to pay capital gains taxes when you sell it down the road. I am assuming you have already discussed this with your attorney, but I thought I just mention it in case you have not had a chance to run this by your attorney. This is not intended as legal advice, just a few things to consider. Best of luck to you. and the kids.

Hi Lorraine:

It all depends on the agreement you have with your realtor and what is on your listing agreement with the agent; which usually follows the common practice in your area.

In California, the seller can cancel the contract with an agent; and withdraw a property from the market pretty easily. Although this is not my practice; but I suspect some of the agents might ask for the sellers to cover part of their expenses in marketing your property.

The other thing is that in California, as long as one side sign the listing agreement, the agent can keep the house on the market to sell; the only thing is that they can't close escrow because both sides needs to agree to transfer the title over.

Sylvia

One other thing you might take into consideration is whether or not your agent has incurred expenses to advertise your home specifically. As a professional, we typically dont like to talk about it, but imagine that you spent all that time listing a property and then spent $200-$300 or even more to advertise it and your customer changes their mind about selling......what a Godsend you would be to offer to reimburse for any advertsing expenses whether your agent accepts it or not! Good luck to you! Angela

It depends on your listing agreement. You should speak with your agent regarding your situation. I work with many divorcing clients (due to referrals from a divorce attorney) and always tell them that if there is a chance either party will be able to keep the house, I will let them out of the listing agreement. The agent's company will have the final say, though.
It really doesn't make a difference that there have been no offers, it's more a matter of how much money/time has been spent to market your home. The agency may want to recoup those fees at the very least.

You are in Suffolk county and so am I. Refer to the contract you signed when you listed your house for this answer. There may or may not be a fee. For my company there is no fee, but other some companies do charge. If there is, it probably won't be much. You will have to notify your agent, in writing, that you would like to withdraw your listing. The agent has a "change of data/status" form that they will fill out stating that you are withdrawing your listing, with the date, you sign it, they take your house off MLS. You can also ask your agent how to withdraw the listing, but probably couldn't wait till tomorrow to ask! :)