Property manager commission for sale of rental house

[David Gershwin]

Hi there,

Take it easy I'm new here! Long time lurker, but wanted to get others thoughts on my situation!

So we moved out of our old city for work reasons last year and decided to rent out our house since we weren't sure if we would be back. We used a property management firm to help us find and screen tenants, and who manage any requests that come up. The tenants have now reached out to us to see if we were interested in selling the house. Reading the property management agreement, I realized it has a clause for sales that says "if a tenant purchases the Property during a tenancy or for a period of 6 months following the end of a tenancy, Agent shall be deemed the procuring cause of the sale and Agent is to be paid a sales commission of 3% of the sale price. This provision continues in effect even if this Agreement is terminated." Rookie mistake I suppose, since when I first read this I thought what were the chances that our tenant would want to buy the property? 

My question is - how have other people dealt with a similar situation? Doing a search in the forum, it appears a lot of people recommend striking or amending that part of the agreement before starting the contract, but we're already 8 months in. I definitely want to compensate the agent for any lost management fees, and possibly even pay a flat fee for finding the tenant but 3% feels a bit steep. I'd like to hear other's thoughts!

[Drew Sygit]

People seem to be always focused on what they are losing versus what they are gaining.

Call a couple af real estate agents in the area of the property and you'll most likely find they'll charge you 5-6% to list and sell the property.

So, focus on the positive news that you saved 2-3%!