Can a buyer take back ac accepted offer, BEFORE purchase agreement is signed? New York State (negotiating, agent)

[nidss77]

In NY State, my realtor tells me I can put in an offer which does not go with earnest money.

If offer is accepted, then inspections occur, THEN we go to contract. Earnest money is given when we sign contract.

So my question is: Can we back out of an accepted offer, if we havent signed a purchase agreement as yet?

Thanks

[MikePRU]

NY does things quite a bit different from the rest of the country. I have a friend who bought a house in Scarsdale a few years ago and the seller had originally accepted another offer but then they swooped in and offered more during the inspection period. So, if the seller can renege then I imagine the buyer could back out as well. I can't imagine if there is no contract in place that either party has any obligation to the other. Hopefully, someone from NY will chime in soon though.

[jdhall1]

I'm very to close to NY but if you say in writing to your agent that you are not interested in going forward with the propert, they will pass on the message to have the sellers agent. I won't see the radon for an attorney up front now.

[berniekosar19]

I'm an agent in NY and yep, that's exactly how it goes down here: parties come to agreement, details get forwarded to the attorneys, inspections occur during this period, and if everything is finalized you sign the contract and provide your earnest money deposit. Kinda weird I guess but the advantage is that you don't have post-contract negotiating ploys like you do in the rest of the country.

So yes, you can back out of the agreement prior to contracts being signed; has actually been a common occurrence in NYC the last few years with the tight market here with plenty of bidding wars.