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Has anyone SELLING their house had to walk away from a buyer?
We are in a contract to sale our home. The buyer and the buyer's agent has performed poorly. We were supposed to close on 8/20 - on 8/19, amendment came in to move closing to 8/29.
My agent got in contact with their lender, and he said the buyer will not be ready 8/29 - and he knew that last week. Today is 8/28 - and no official amendment yet from the buyer. This all seems ridiculous to me, but I have never sold a house before.
We believe that the buyer really does not have the money and is stalling.
So we are about to tell them to go away, and we will not sell the house at all right now - which is probably freaking out our agent, because she knew that from the start.
One other suggestion: tell them you need more money -- this time a nonrefundable extension deposit and it must be paid by the end of the day tomorrow or you will be terminating the purchase agreement. That will tell you how serious they are about buying your house.
It would be your choice to sign another amend to change the closing date or not. Their failure to perform may mean they have to forfeit the earnest money - depends on your contract.
One other suggestion: tell them you need more money -- this time a nonrefundable extension deposit and it must be paid by the end of the day tomorrow or you will be terminating the purchase agreement. That will tell you how serious they are about buying your house.
As of now - from a legal standpoint - we are closing tomorrow morning. I'm not sure we are supposed to know that they are not ready.
We got extra info from their lender about their title company not having the docs done - because he is mad at them as well. The survey was supposed to be done by day 7 ... it was done on day 33 (this Monday) of a 30 day contract. That's how bad their performance has been.
Threatening them with more money will blow things up as well - because they probably don't have the money. We will just let the clock run out and not sign any further amendments... unless they come up with something good in the next 24 hours.
It would be your choice to sign another amend to change the closing date or not. Their failure to perform may mean they have to forfeit the earnest money - depends on your contract.
Yep... technically we should be keeping earnest money. But we are not hurting for money and really want the process to be done. However there is a part of me that wants to penalize them and fight for the earnest money if they try to keep it...
The bad part of the whole deal is that we had a house ready and waiting for us to buy... but thankfully we did not jump in and start that contract process while in the midst of our sales contract. Mrs. DRob and I agreed to attempt to sell the house over the summer, and if it did not work out - we would stay put - which actually benefits us financially in the long run. We know it's a seller's market and wanted to test the waters... plus the neighbors can be a nuisance on occasion. Oh well...
As of now - from a legal standpoint - we are closing tomorrow morning. I'm not sure we are supposed to know that they are not ready.
We got extra info from their lender about their title company not having the docs done - because he is mad at them as well. The survey was supposed to be done by day 7 ... it was done on day 33 (this Monday) of a 30 day contract. That's how bad their performance has been.
Threatening them with more money will blow things up as well - because they probably don't have the money. We will just let the clock run out and not sign any further amendments... unless they come up with something good in the next 24 hours.
I guess you will need to decide tomorrow what you want to do.
Do you want to sell your property or not? If not, why have you wasted so much time, and your agent's time and money, if you really didn't want to make it happen? It sounds like you planned to go through with it only if events left you no choice. Sorry, but that is a pretty crappy way to go into the process if that is the case.
OTOH, if you fully intended to sell and still want to sell, why blow everything up now? Obviously, the proposition of it not working out is not a problem for you (or so it seems) so why not go along, do an addendum for an extension, and see if it works out?
Fortunately, you seem to be in a position where you have options and will not suffer significant loss if they simply go away ... with or without their earnest money deposit. I suppose the issue of whether to release the deposit, depends somewhat on whether you believe the potential buyers simply didn't understand the situation and got in over-their-heads ---OR if they actually 'sandbagged' the process and you based on some other agenda.
Perhaps you should simply ask them, via the Realtors, to advise you why they think you should not be entitled to walk-away with their deposit. You can still do whatever you think is right (return the deposit or not), but, may be able to learn something from the process ... as will they.
Don't know your contract, but here there are steps to follow. Has the buyer released all contingencies? We have a form for that. We have a Notice of Buyer to Close Escrow. If you don't follow the steps, you cannot just cancel. If you do follow the steps, the contract should stipulate where the earnest money goes - to you or the buyer.
Read the contract. Ask your agent. Hire a lawyer. But without us seeing your contract, we don't know. And unless someone on this board is a lawyer, we would not be allowed to give you any legal advice.
Do you want to sell your property or not? If not, why have you wasted so much time, and your agent's time and money, if you really didn't want to make it happen? It sounds like you planned to go through with it only if events left you no choice. Sorry, but that is a pretty crappy way to go into the process if that is the case.
OTOH, if you fully intended to sell and still want to sell, why blow everything up now? Obviously, the proposition of it not working out is not a problem for you (or so it seems) so why not go along, do an addendum for an extension, and see if it works out?
Hey - we have options. If yes - OK. If no - not as fun, but OK.
The agent was made aware of our status very clearly before we started.
I don't think you understand how frustrating the process has been with these people. Basically the buyer is a young single Hispanic female who doesn't understand the weight of what is occurring, combined with an agent/broker who has really not looked out for her best interests. Every document until this week has been a minimum three day turnaround. Poor grammar and spelling on documentation... We were not expecting this when we started the process. So why blow everything up? Because we lose nothing, and we don't appreciate how they have handled the whole process. The agent/broker definitely does not deserve the commission he is supposed to get.
So in the end, he behaves badly and still gets paid. Nothing changes.
Anyway their lender said their documents are in, all credit checks are done - but this Friday being the start of a long weekend - the documentation won't be completed. So we decided to give them one more week since their should be no more hiccups.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NinaN
Don't know your contract, but here there are steps to follow. Has the buyer released all contingencies? We have a form for that. We have a Notice of Buyer to Close Escrow. If you don't follow the steps, you cannot just cancel. If you do follow the steps, the contract should stipulate where the earnest money goes - to you or the buyer.
Read the contract. Ask your agent. Hire a lawyer. But without us seeing your contract, we don't know. And unless someone on this board is a lawyer, we would not be allowed to give you any legal advice.
The decision for us was to not sign any further amendments to change the date and let the clock run out and sign termination paperwork. Anyway - we are not going that route... yet. Hopefully it won't come to that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jghorton
Fortunately, you seem to be in a position where you have options and will not suffer significant loss if they simply go away ... with or without their earnest money deposit. I suppose the issue of whether to release the deposit, depends somewhat on whether you believe the potential buyers simply didn't understand the situation and got in over-their-heads ---OR if they actually 'sandbagged' the process and you based on some other agenda.
Perhaps you should simply ask them, via the Realtors, to advise you why they think you should not be entitled to walk-away with their deposit. You can still do whatever you think is right (return the deposit or not), but, may be able to learn something from the process ... as will they.
I do think she is in over her head. She is stretching the money she has. They offered above our asking price in order to use our cash to help her close. We gave them some concessions on repairs I did not want to deal with - and then some of that money got shifted to further help with the closing costs.
Last edited by DRob4JC; 08-28-2014 at 11:57 PM..
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