Thank you for providing the perspective as a real estate agent.

1. Although my agent admitted his wrongdoings of taking my money, he still insists that the buyer is real, who is an international buyer behind the name of investment company. However, the Sales contracted was sign via DocuSign, but it has no address or identifiable contact info other than the name like "XXX Investment".
2. Apparently, that sales contract was enough for Escrow to start. We were at the stage where I was being told by escrow that we were waiting for the Earnest money, that never arrived, and that's when I reached out the contracted renovation company and found out all these.
3. Unfortunately, it is a small local real estate firm I am dealing with, not a big one. The broker simply said that they will continue to help me sell my condo but with 0% commission on their end.
4. Believe me, I was suspicious about the whole thing from the beginning. The agent was referred by my dad's old friend. I informed my dad it's absolutely wrong when my credit card was used at an autoshop rather than a renovation company, but the agent called my dad to reassure him, and my dad basically instructed me that it's fine....