Has anyone cancelled a builder's contract pre-closing? (sales, real estate)

[jeajea]

We have been building with a cookie-cutter builder and scheduled to close within a month, however we are having 2nd thoughts.

1) Now that we're down here (staying with family) we aren't liking the town so much
2) The builder has not been so great to deal with and we've had to really fight for things that were originally promised in the sales presentation - so we're a little turned off to them.

I'm prepared to lose all of the upfront money that was deposited (lot deposit, some studio upgrades we purchased out of pocket) but does anyone know if we typically are liable for the deposit only, or do the builder's typically sue the prospective buyers for cancelling?

I am reviewing the contract now and have called a real estate attorney, but was curious if anyone knew the results of a cancellation.

[wpbmom]

We canceled a construction property that had not been started. We had 50k put down on it and had not sign off on the final choices to get started. We also got a RE attorney who got us out no problem. He basically just found some loophole in our contract (that made little sense to us and had nothing to do with why we wanted out). We got all of our money back. I am sure your attorney will be able to tell you quickly what your chances look like. Good luck.

[scamutz]

If the reason is legitimate - many times your deposit will be refunded..it's it's just a cold feet type thing, you are looking at losing your escrow deposit and options deposits, but most homebuilders are not going to got through the trouble of trying to force you to but their home.

It's just not worth it. Especially in a tough market, reputation is everything and unless it's really a bottom of the barrel builder, they don't want to risk losing the 10-100 people that you would complain to as potential future customers.