[quote=svelte][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.[/quote]

Absolutely. Why on earth would the seller care whether or not the buyers realtor enters an exclusive contract with the buyer, given that the sale of his house is falling through with said buyer? Either he is flat our lying, or the sellers realtor is his wife, business partner, friend, or associate.

Ridiculous. Run, don’t walk, and get the savvy friend or lawyer as suggested above, by your side, ASAP. This guy is a shyster.

And never refuse a home inspection, ever. And you hire the inspector, even if it means looking through the yellow pages, as opposed to going with your realtors “suggestion”. Lots of collusion going on out there, and this realtor sounds like the bottom of the barrel.