[quote=Ms Pington] I want to back out of the deal. All this while I haven’t had any direct contact with the seller. Now he says that the seller won’t sign the cancellation of contract document unless I sign an exclusive representation agreement with him. Does that even make any kind of sense?
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Wait…the seller won’t sign cancellation unless you sign an exclusive agreement with your agent?

I don’t believe that for a second!

Also…not unusual for agents to practically forbid contact between buyer and seller. There are probably several reasons for that, but my instinct tells me the overriding reason is that the agents lose some control of the situation – undesirable from their perspective.