Friday July 18th - Broker is MIA Question: I now have a contract on my house, but the broker with whom I listed appears to have gone out of business. They do not respond to emails, telephone or FAX, and their website has been down for over a week. I cannot locate any current information about their status on the Internet. From what I understand, the broker is the only one that can update my MLS listing, but they are nowhere to be found. What am I supposed to do about the MLS listing? Leave my house listed as "active" forever? Answer: If you're dealing with a sole proprietorship it may well be that the owner has a sudden accident or illness or otherwise cannot respond to you for a brief period. Since you only know that communication has been difficult, it's best not to make additional assumptions which may prove incorrect. You do not have an arrangement with the local MLS to market the property, you have a listing agreement with the broker, thus the MLS does not want to remove the listing without proper authority and that authority is the listing broker. One approach might be to keep the property in the MLS but to show that it's "under contract" -- it will not actually be "sold" until closing and a change of title in the public records. In this way you could alert brokers and buyers to the current status of the property.

Published: July 18, 2008

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