"signed and accepted offer, listing still active"

[SmartMoney]

Contract fall-outs are at an all time high. Why? Inability to obtain financing in these restrictive times. The seller wants to keep their options at the ready should your financing fall through.

[oldtrader]

This is an old thread, but something that should be noted.

You cannot know that to be accurate. A seller can ALWAYS back out of an accepted offer, provided he is willing to deal with the consequences of doing so.

As a long time real estate broker, this is easy to stop. How a top real estate attorney taught in a real estate class, and I have used to protect a client.

When the buyer tries to cancel the contract, take the contract down to the county court house, and file it on the property. The owner will be unable to sell this home to anyone else for a period of a year in most states, as it is notice that the buyer intends to complete the purchase. I is actually a lis pendence notice that the buyer intends to use the court to force the seller to complete the sale.

One time my son was buying a 5 acre highway frontage in the county that was zoned so he could convert a dairy barn into an art gallery, and a large machine storage metal building into an art foundry. He asked me to come down and see it, and let him know if it was worth the asking price. I went down and evaluated it, and my estimate was he was getting it for about 40% under it's real value. He made a cash offer and it was accepted. Then the Realtor was told he was way under the value by someone, and they tried to kill the sale.

Son called and asked for advice. He filed the contract at the courthouse, and sent the owner and the seller the notice he would be enforcing the contract in the courts, and they would be getting a notice of the suit within the next year. The owner was selling that place (one of several he owned) so he would have cash to buy another property. Boy did that wake them up. They went to their attorney, and found my son could do that and would win. He got the property as per the contact with a quick closing.

Sellers consequences: Most sellers, do not want to wait around for a year to get sued to enforce the contract. Especially when their attorney will tell them that they will probably lose.

I have seen this done, in several states over the years, and have had more than one attorney back this method of enforcing contracts. The odds that you will have to even get an attorney involved are very small. Most sellers are not willing to keep their property tied up for one or two years to cancel the contract, and pay an attorney even if they lose the case.

[phonelady61]

Originally Posted by Bill Keegan

You cannot know that to be accurate. A seller can ALWAYS back out of an accepted offer, provided he is willing to deal with the consequences of doing so.

And they do it all the time and if they do make sure you get your money back plus whatever out of pocket exspenses you have laid out . Don't let them walk away without getting some funds back . Sometimes people don't act like adults when dealing with selling and buying houses . We had one back out 8 days before we were to close and move . That put us in a bind but nothing we could not work out , but that being said I felt sorry for the other people , she was to buy their house and they went ahead and moved out and bought another house so they got stuck with two mortgages , in that case I do believe I would have sued her . Also I have heard of people never showing up to closing and saying they just decided not to sell and in that case I would sue sue sue .....