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The square footage. If it's not in writing somewhere, that's a dead end. People can look up square footage in tax appraisal sites online these days. Or a buyer can ask to see the last appraisal from the city, which I think has the square footage on it. Not sure about that.
But if it's not in writing, it doesn't exist. A contract's provisions are all contained within the four corners of the contract, is the way i've heard it expressed. But a lawyer can answer whether telling you something or showing you something false "enticed" you fraudulently to offer that price.
I don't understand the waiving financial contingencies thing. That means you agree to pay this price even if you can't get the loan you want? I've never heard of such a thing. Why would a person agree to that? I'm sure there are reasons, but I don't know of one. When I bought a house, that wasn't an option, even if someone had asked me to do that, since I could only buy the house if I got the full loan amount I wanted.
I can't see the seller agreeing to "give back" thousands of dollars. After all, the seller didn't commit any fraud or do anything wrong.
The only avenue I see is going after the seller's real estate agency in some way, since they listed the square footage incorrectly to begin with.
The square footage DOES affect the price, IMO, since homes are calculated at least in part by a dollar amount per square foot. But again, I didn't see anywhere that the square footage is incorrectly listed anywhere in the contract or addenda to it. And if it's listed in teh county's tax appraisal site (or office), then it's considered public information.
What a learning experience for me about buying, which I may be doing soon.
Something similar did happen to me years ago. I put a contract on a house. Then I found out that some signficant repair they'd had done, which was supposed to be under a transferable warranty, was in fact NOT under a transferable warranty, since the company had gone out of business. So I told them I wanted my earnest money back and out of the contract. The agent (MY agent) held my feet to the fire and said "that doesn't matter; they'll buy a home warranty to give you,and that's that." I said that's not the same thing, that was a misrepresentation in the first place (the repair & warranty were in the contract), AND he'd lied to me about the age of the roof. He told me it was 10 years old & in good shape, when in fact it was 20 years old and needed immediate replacing. That he'd intentionally bald faced lied to me. He said he didn't say that. I said he did. He arrogantly & confidently insisted he didn't say that. I told him that I'd be happy to let him hear the recording where I taped him saying that. So I got my earnest money back, and moved on.
I did have a recording of him saying that. He'd left a message on my answering machine about the roof. In my typical anal fashion, I saved it, as I saved all important messages.
I hate to be cynical, but I've learned the hard way that there are people in the world who'll do it to you, if they can.
It's worth the $500 to try a new lender. There's no rhyme or reason to the inconsistency in appraisals and the lender's hands are tied. We are seeing a lot of incompetent appraisals out there because the AMCs are paying a pittance.
Inquire about the appraisals, what has been the lender's experience and so on. Local makes a difference. Stay with a local lender.
I agree, you got some really bad advice from your agent. Did they really not warn you of the consequences of your offer? Time for a sit-down with their broker and a printout of this thread.
How much did your "buyer's" try to push into waving all contingencies and giving you a sense of urgency to buy. If they were pushing hard I might be tempted to pursue both disciplinary action with your states real estate agent regulatory authority and a lawsuit for malpractice as a buyer's representative. If your agent did push you they were acting as a salesperson directly against your interests as a buyer while under contract either explicitly or implicitly as a "buyer's" agent, or in some states possibly as a neutral transactional representative bound to at the very least do you no harm. Real estate agents that were supposed to be acting as Buyer's Representatives have been very vocal in many hot areas about the need to waive contingencies and create the perception of a great sense of urgency, and are predatory sales people in the absolute worst sense.
I don't know if you are going to be legally able to get out of or renegotiate this contract. I suspect the square footage issue is a dead end, measuring is not that hard to do before you make an offer and even if it was advertised with an inflated square footage it would probably be considered a caveat emptor item since it is easy to verify. I'm not sure why unfinished attic space would have ever been included in the square footage, and basement space generally does not count as square footage in an appraisal.
You may have just learned a very expensive lesson, the very least you can do is help others learn from it too. Do the civic thing and do what you can to prevent the predatory sales tactics like this in the future for everyone.
Thank you all so much for your quick replies and advice. It was a great support during this time. I spoke with the bank and found out that there have been a lot of mistakes with the appraisal. One of the biggest was the appraiser used a wrong sold value on one of the comps. After reviewing the correct value and the new comps that I sent based on what they were looking for, my appraisal came to the purchase value!!!!! Yaaay! I am so relieved!
However, I have waived the financial contingency. Would the denial letter from the Bank still work?
Quote:
Originally Posted by kara_2014
No, I waived the inspection contingency also.
I'm glad to hear that it's worked out to your satisfaction. And, hopefully, you've learned a few things along the way.
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