We have a rental property we are planning to sell when the tenant vacates at the end of May.

Our property management company referred us to a realtor they use who, back in December, provided a valuation report on the home and also contacted the tenants to see if they were interested in purchasing it (they aren’t). He also tentatively agreed, after much hemming and hawing, to accept a 4% total commission (buyer + seller) to list the house for us. He wasn’t happy when I told him that was our expectation.

Our last conversation with him was in February. After he agreed to the 4% stipulation it’s been radio silent from his direction.

Now we have discovered that Homie is listing properties in our area (they just started in January). When we originally reached out to the property management company about giving us a referral Homie wasn’t listing properties there, or we would have gone with them from the beginning. I don’t want to do a pure FSBO because we don’t live in the area anymore. I spoke with the Homie agent this morning and it will save us $5-7k to use them. And the area that we are selling in is literally one of the hottest markets in the country right now. Going under contract in just a few days, usually for much over asking price is the norm there.

We haven’t signed a contract with the PM’s agent or anything formal, but my question is it unethical to not use him as the agent given that even with his “heavily discounted” commission it will cost us an additional $5-7k for no real added value? Is it shady to say “thanks but if you can’t match the Homie price then we will go with them”?