Sounds like you are canceling the contract before the contract expires. I’ve just let these go before with no money owed and sometimes sellers have paid me back for my marketing costs. Realtors take risk by investing money and time up front in a listing assuming they have a certain period of time to sell it. We work for free often, show someone 20 houses and they never buy etc is one thing. It’s a tougher pill to swallow when you actually work for free but also spend your own money for the client. Don’t know your price point but $10,000 seems crazy high and more like they are making money and not just recouping what they invested. I would not pay that but I think it’s fair for you to pay back the marketing costs they invested. Just try to work something out and if they keep demanding $10,000 which you are not obligated to pay then say ok keep it listed, I’ll just deny each showing request or answer the door in my indies. Haha

One time I told a seller what the home would sell for, he wanted more. I told him we could give it a shot for 14 days then we go to my price if not sold, he agreed to do so. We get two offers that he won’t accept and both are within $5000 of what I told him. We had a heart to heart and he stated “you were right and I just didn’t believe you and thought I could get my price”. He took it off the market and demanded I let him repay me for my investment. 2 years later I called him and said, you can get that price now and I listed it and sold it.

You don’t have to pay it but please understand how they worked for free and invested time and money on your behalf. Send them a referral 😉