The first decision you get to make when you put your house on the market is choosing the right realtor.

You want a realtor you can get along with, because this is a partnership you’re entering, and you want someone who is competent, dependable and will help you achieve your goals. And you’ll also want someone who knows how to market your home, not just to buyers, but also to buyer-agents, because they are working with most of the buyers.

But what if it doesn’t work out? What if you want to fire your realtor? Now what do you do?

Firing a real estate agent isn’t as easy as firing the kid down the street who messed up mowing your lawn, or an employee in this Right to Work state. Real estate contracts in Utah (and many other states) are fact-binding. They are legal and binding agreements and need to have the agent’s and even the agent’s broker agree. They have to let you out of the contract.

That’s not only true working with sellers, it’s also true working with buyers in Utah. And if you, as a buyer, ignore the contract and buy a home through another agent, you could end up paying a commission to one of those agents. I’ve seen it happen.

With an exclusive real estate contract there are certain terms you both agree to whether buying or selling a home, and you must work only with that agent. The buyer agency agreement here is very much like a listing agreement. But it’s also a consumer protection document designed to protect you, the consumer, as well as the agent.

If you want to cancel your agreement it’s best to part amicably to avoid a potential financial hit. So from the get-go it’s important that you understand the skill set of the agent you hire to avoid problems down the road. You do not want to hire an agent trained primarily as a buyer’s agent to sell your home. Buyer’s agents and seller’s agents, or listing agents, are trained very differently. Most folks green to the real estate business simply assume that agents do both things well. They don’t, necessarily.

Realtors come in all shapes and sizes. Some are wonderful while others are terrible. Most fall in between. Some are known in the industry as “post and pray” agents. They post a sign and pray someone will sell the home. Since faith without works is dead, a successful sale needs more than that.

The average Realtor, according to marketing figures I’ve seen, spend less than $100 a month on their business. It’s the ones who spend more who usually do more for you.

One of the most frequent complaints I’ve heard is lack of communication. We call these folks “secret agents.” They list your house and you rarely hear from them again. Communication is a key element in the real estate business. So feedback on every showing and how the market is doing is extremely important to sellers. Did they like the home? How’s the price? Is any improvement needed?

Lack of effective communication is a major point of dissatisfaction and a reason to fire your agent. Another reason is lack of ability. They may not understand how to price a home properly, how to market it effectively or how to negotiate with the buyer’s agent and others involved in the sale.

Don’t ever hire an agent to sell your home based on price or commission. An agent may suggest a price way out of the ballpark just to get the listing. Or they may offer a cut-rate commission, not explaining that that usually means cutting the marketing, which could lead to getting less for your home. We call that “buying the listing.”

Once they get the listing they start pushing for a price reduction, which was their strategy all along. I’ve seen some interesting price reductions of thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars. But if the home is priced well and still hasn’t sold the best strategy, in my view, is not to cut the price but raise the commission. The seller will take a far lesser hit and get more showings from hungry buyer agents to boot.

So why do agents take overpriced listings? Most likely to find buyers who they can then move over to other properties. My first broker told me, “If you want to find buyers, get some listings.” Every listing spells potential future business for the listing agent whether it sells or not.

Here are other good reasons to fire your agent: Acting unprofessionally, misrepresenting the property, dishonesty, failing to adhere to the real estate code of ethics, failure to obey the client’s lawful instruction, disloyal and lack of knowledge.

Just remember, when you want to fire your agent keep it an amicable negotiation because the agent still has to let you out of the contract.

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