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Good idea. If you asked to pull the offer it doesn't sound as if there was a meeting of the minds, so it very well may not be a binding contract. Did you make a down payment/earnest money deposit? Regardless, if you're making offers and then trying to rescind those offers, maybe you're just not ready to buy a house. Take your time and try to figure out what you really want to do.
You guys know a text IS permissible in court right
Sure, but it's much harder to prove receipt, and a poor business practice. You started your transaction by writing in down on paper then changed the way in which you amended your contract. That's a very poor and amateurish business practice, and your broker could easily argue that he had expected subsequent communications to follow in the same manner. I'd check your contract for what is says about what constitutes proper notice.
I asked the realtor in writing to pull out the offer the same day highest and best was called for..For instance yesterday at 5pm.. a few hours later SAME DAY I asked for the offer to be pulled out.
If there was a 5pm bid deadline and you asked him to pull the offer several hours later, was the system closed to changing offers ?
Also, you never explained how you went OVER your highest price. Did you OK the highest price ?
A text is a writing for purposes of real estate contracts. It has already been litigated...a text message has been found to clearly overcome the statute of frauds hurdles.
You withdrew the contract from your agent prior to the banks acceptance...the question is whether or not the bank knew this. If the bank did know, then its not a legal contract, if the bank did not, then it is likely a binding contract. You technically speaking, submitted an offer which they accepted prior to any communication of rescinding.
You may have a possible cause of action against your agent, but everything is going to revolve around what was reasonable. Every case has a lot of background facts and yours is no different. The phone company will be able to determine when the message was delivered and read though. If you intend to fight this against your agent, then I would recommend an attorney now, because you will need to preserve the data on his phone, not just the carrier, and doing so will require a subpoena. There is a method of doing discovery at the time the lawsuit is filed if there is a risk that evidence will be lost or spoiled.
If you are going to use SMS as communication instead of email, use a confirmation text to follow. Just add please reply to confirm receipt at the end of your SMS. Doing so, the other party can not claim they didn't get the SMS.
If there is an inspection contingency, then hopefully your inspector will find major issues that cause you to back out of the contract legally.
------If there isn't an inspection contingency (or if no issues are found during inspection)...then think of worst case scenario if you back out of the contract. You would lose your earnest money, right? The other big cost would be the agent suing you to get their commission, right? But because you sent that text, I wonder if they would or wouldn't sue you? But your attorney will come in handy and is a good idea you get one.
BTW, I bet realtors get a large volume of texts and emails...probably hundreds (or more) per day. It is very likely that the agent didn't see the text message in time (or at all).
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