My responsibility to a fomer broker........

Merry Xmas all....you will see several postings from me as I am about to put my place back on the market and don't want to make some of the same mistakes I made the first time around. The first realization is that I abosolutely do NOT need a buyers broker in my case (not saying for all, but in my case), thru your help on these postings. Long story short, my broker to sell was/is a personal friend... [more]

Merry Xmas all....you will see several postings from me as I am about to put my place back on the market and don't want to make some of the same mistakes I made the first time around. The first realization is that I abosolutely do NOT need a buyers broker in my case (not saying for all, but in my case), thru your help on these postings. Long story short, my broker to sell was/is a personal friend (first mistake, never engage a friend in this type of transaction it got heated many times and is in a difficult spot right now.) Anway, I never promised that he would be showing me apartments to buy as I knew I could do that on my own. It wasn't talked about or written, he just assumed it . So when I found a place on my own, and told the broker (from a smallish agency) that I was looking at it "without a broker" he was more than willing to get me a discount as he said almost everything he sells he has to split the commmsission with an outside broker...(Meanwhile this was about 10 months ago). When I told my broker at the time I found this apartment and went to look at it, he WENT BALLISTIC on me saying "how dare I", he must be a listed broker on ther unit, etc. etc. and brought up our friendship of over 20 years. This is when I really started to see the "broker shark" come in, and realized he wasn't looking at my best interests, only I was! So I listed him against my better judgement with the sellers broker on that until. Subsequently, we never reached a suitable bid, the apartment is still on the market 10 months later, and I want to see it again. I am not under any contract to my former broker/friend, so do I have any legal obligation to include him in the deal?? Plus, my broker friend NEVER EVEN BOTHERED TO SEE THE APARTMENT I AM DISCUSSING HERE!!!! It's clearly obvious why my broker wanted to be involved. I am a lot less naive as I was then. Your comments are most welcome, along with any questions you may have. Again I will be posting a series of topics as I have found alot of your feedback very helpful from buyers, sellers, and brokers that truly have their clients interests at heart. Many thanks for reading. [less]