She tried to fire her real estate agent. It turned into a nightmare.
A homebuyer in Pennsylvania found herself trapped in a restrictive buyer representation agreement that prevents her from firing her real estate agent. The contract requires an early termination fee or a referral fee to another brokerage, effectively binding her to the agent until 2027.
Why it matters
This highlights the potential pitfalls of standard real estate contracts and the lack of consumer awareness regarding long-term buyer representation agreements.
Getty Images; iStock; Tyler Le/BI Kirsten Ganas was ready to fire her real estate agent. It was late March, right in the thick of homebuying season in southwest Pennsylvania. Ganas and her partner, Austin McCarley, had recently learned they were expecting their second child, and they were thrilled at the prospect of upgrading from their two-bedroom rental. They were less enthused, however, about the services provided by their agent, Dan Waterhouse. He'd reached out to them in early January, after they requested their first home tour on Zillow ; since then, Waterhouse had shown them roughly two dozen properties. He was nice but sometimes slow to respond, Ganas says, and he lived far from their desired area — no good in a fast-moving market . Shortly after getting outbid on a property, Ganas texted to let him know they'd be moving on. There was just one problem.
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