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I am a potential buyer who has now gotten cold feet about a prospective purchase. I'd like to get in touch with a real estate attorney in Montgomery County, who is knowledgeable about sales contracts in the Bethesda/Kensington/Rockville area. I have not closed on the purchase, signed the mortgage, had an appraisal or even an inspection yet...just plain cold feet about proceeding further. I'd prefer to speak to an attorney prior to speaking with my buyer's agent. If you know of someone knowledgeable, I'd be interested in knowing how to get in touch with that person. Thanks in advance.
If you have "cold feet" I really want to assure this is COMPLETELY normal. If you do have a buyer's agent you should be talking to them, in detail, a lot!
If you do not have an agent, I would NOT recommend that you immediately seek out an attorney, at your stage of the process it may be a total waste of money.
Generally the important stages are:
#1 When you and the buyer agree to price and terms, your earnest money is placed into an escrow account.
I assume this happened.
{OPTIONAL} When the seller and the buyers have their legal counsel review the contract to make sure that it is acceptable and enforceable. You sound like you WANT to get an attorney to do much more than this; that could be a mistake...
#3 When you have an inspection performed, at your expense, to verify the condition of the property/
It does NOT sound like this has happened. LOTS of defects can be found at ANY inspection, if these are presented to the SELLER and they are unable / unwilling to remedy them you can generally get out the deal with nothing lost...
#4 When you are notified by your lender that the house has appraised for an amount at least equal to what you need to finance.
This has not happened. Do NOT put "the cart before the horse". It will make you a TARGET to get run over!!!
Rushing to see a lawyer would likely TRIGGER the selling doing the same, and with YOUR escrow money at stake the other side has essentially a "freebie" at suing you for "specific performance" to enter into the sale...
If you do not have a buyers' agent and you do not plan on having an attorney review the contract then I do recommend getting an attorney lined up, BUT NOT TO PAY TO KILL THE DEAL, just so that you are ready to have SOME ONE in your corner to be sure you are covered.
Depending on WHY you have cold feet and what your options are, I would recommend using the INSPECTION and/or FINANCING to kill the deal at no cost.
IF your "cold feet" are over 'normal stuff' share with us here and I would bet we could offer FREE advice that would help you decide if this the right thing to do...
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