Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Yes, you are related but you need to cite the exact wording of what you feel the exclusion provision is; often it is necessary to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest even if there is no factual conflict. I would suspect the section merely provides that you can not get a commission as opposed to representing her.

Mr. Shers may be right, be he doesn't give any authority for his opinion that one's wife's aunt is a relative.

I think there is an argument that, at least for some purposes, one's wife's aunt is not a relative. For example, Civil Code section 1569, in defining "duress," refers to unlawful confinement of "the party, or of an ancestor, descendant or adopted child of such party, husband or wife."

Your wife's aunt is neither an ancestor nor a descendant of your wife.

However, she is a "collateral relation" of the third degree of kinship for inheritance purposes. So, I think the answer is in contacting the drafter of the exclusionary language, to ask them what relatives they had in mind.