Nova

Perry is 100% wrong and surely doesn't know what he is talking about.

You should be able to get most of your money back. Landlord can take only the money needed to clean up things minus normal wear and tear. It's obvious that 9 years of rental means LOTS of wear and tear. And, so you should make a case of getting ALL of your money back.
See page 53 on http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/catenant.pdf

Rick is right that this is not a big amount of money. However, if I were you, I would still go to court as a matter of principle. Note that your landlord cannot bring retroactive cases back now.

File a small court claim and good luck! - Thu Apr 29, 2010

You are not a slave to your agent, even if your signed deal says so. That deal will not be honored in ANY US court.
However, life is much easier for you. You can just cancel your agreement by telling the agent that your experience has not been good and you want to try a new agent. Do it in writing and mention that effective immediately you are moving to a new agent. Also, tell the agent that you would not be putting offer on any of the properties she/he showed you and that you don't want any new information or help from her/him. AND YOU ARE OFF THE HOOKS.

You signed a deal but it's a revocable deal so you can cancel it. If it's irrevocable it's an invalid deal. - Sat Mar 20, 2010

Adams,

At this range your best bet is fixed commission agent who charges you fixed dollars to write the contract and help close the deal. That agent will return you commission minus fixed dollar that you can lower your buying price.

I guess if you are smart enough to have $5M to buy the house, you will be smart enough to negotiate, do the proper inspection and the basic sanity check. - Mon Nov 23, 2009

This is a plain white lie. I'll avoid interacting with any such person who says something like this -
>>You can expect Discount Service when you work with a Discount Realtor in any place.

I interviewed many agents before finding a great one -
agent#1: no rebate to me - knew RE really good however he didn't provide satisfactory service. He tried to overlook what I wanted (or should have wanted) and just wanted to close any deal

agen#2: agreed on 1.5% rebate back to me - was not good, didn't know enough about RE. She was a typical agent who just kept saying "best time to buy" without giving any specifics. She was an insult to my intelligence!

agent#3: agreed on 1.25% rebate back to me - was good, knew everything RE and he also knew what I wanted in our house. But, he still tried to sell us 2 houses that we didn't want. And, advised us to overbid beyond reason.

agent#4: agreed on 1.25% rebate back to me - and he has been great.

And, all 4 were Realtors (as if that matters) not just agent.

So, realize that agents are good and back irrespective of what they charge.

Your preference in finding a RE agent should be #1 cash back #2 trust (read NOT a liar or selfish person who would have you buy ANY house to get the commission #3 agent's knowledge of RE issues (even if the agent knows everything, what are the chances he/she would advise you appropriately? 67% as I found)

And, since good agents exist in both categories (who return the cash back and those who don't) it's in your interest to limit search to only those who do. - Mon Nov 23, 2009