House sale records question (sales, real estate, lawyer)

[mdovell]

My parents have a neighbor that awhile back sold their home. The price was good (515K) but apparently they didn't like where they were going to move to. They hired lawyers and eventually were able to cancel the sale. I think this was beyond stupid as the amount was easily well above other asking prices in the area. Is there any record that this happened or is something like this private? I'm afraid that it might screw up some of the buyer expectations down the line that sellers lawyer up and change their minds.

[CrowGirl]

Originally Posted by mdovell

My parents have a neighbor that awhile back sold their home. The price was good (515K) but apparently they didn't like where they were going to move to. They hired lawyers and eventually were able to cancel the sale. I think this was beyond stupid as the amount was easily well above other asking prices in the area. Is there any record that this happened or is something like this private? I'm afraid that it might screw up some of the buyer expectations down the line that sellers lawyer up and change their minds.

Did the sale actually close or did they cancel the purchase and sale contract before closing? I am not a real estate lawyer but I can't see how the transaction could be unilaterally reversed after it had closed absent some very specific facts (e.g., it turned out the seller wasn't mentally competent or the deed wasn't executed by all necessary parties, etc.). The other possibility would be a negotiated deal with the buyer. But if the sale did close and the deed was recorded I suspect it would still be there and that anything to reverse it would also be recorded. Again, if this really was reversed unilaterally post sale I'm guessing this was a rare event that depended on specific facts.

[GeoffD]

If the deal didn’t close with the deed registered, I doubt you could see anything. I believe the whole state is online. I’ve only looked at the local portal in my county.

[CaseyB]

If the sale didn't close, then there isn't anything to look up.

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

If the deal didn’t close with the deed registered, I doubt you could see anything. I believe the whole state is online. I’ve only looked at the local portal in my county.

This. Any transactions which would have occurred would be between the brokerages/attorneys of the buyers/sellers - nothing in the public domain.

The only thing future buyers might see, via MLS, is whether the property was ever under contract ... but without a sale record and price, that piece of data is more or less useless.

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by CaseyB

If the sale didn't close, then there isn't anything to look up.

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

The only thing future buyers might see, via MLS, is whether the property was ever under contract ... but without a sale record and price, that piece of data is more or less useless.

This. If the sale didn't close then there's no public record of what was offered. If the house was listed in MLS then sales history would show that the house went under contract and then came back on the market but that would be it.

If the case actually made it into the courts then there might be some publicly available case records but I don't think people are going to go around searching for those. I also think it's quite a stretch to think that people will assume everyone in the neighborhood will lawyer up to cancel a sale just because one homeowner did.