Our home is on the market for sale. A buyer submitted an offer to purchase our home and we accepted the offer. The purchase agreement was signed by both buyer and seller. The buyer backs out of the deal one day after agreement was signed and stops payment on the escrow check. The only contigency of the contact was home inspection. The buyer backs out even before the inspection was order.
As the seller what rights do we have? Or is it worth fighting for considering that the conract was on in effect for one day?
2007-01-16 15:00:17 · 4 answers · asked by syl 1 in Business & Finance ➔ Renting & Real Estate
consider it to be in your favor because the buyer did not walk the last day of the attorney's approval or when the total earnest money was already on deposit (by law) in the listing broker's earnest money escrow. those factors would have held your property off the open market even longer.
also, if he agreed to buy your house, another buyer will come along that is more earnest than he is. most homes are sitting on the market now for months on end, so an offer means that your house has selling quality.
here's what i'd do in your skin: you will get a letter asking for return of his earnest money. (i hope he sends it by certified mail per conditions of the contract, since you can delay picking up his letter at the post office, hehehe).
by law, it can only be released by the listing broker if both buyer and seller agree to release in writing or if a court of law adjudicates its disbursement.
okay then, he does not want your house. when you get the letter, take a while to sign it. let him have it back (make sure your agent puts it, right now, into the "temporarily off market" status or else, if at all possible, as soon as possible: into "back on market,") perhaps doing it while you are "sending" the release back to the listing office (by the slowest mail you can get). do whatever you can to give him a little kick of kharma, but do not do anything that is illegal.
remember that if a buyer dies, he is out of the deal, but that if the seller dies, his estate is not out of the obligation to sell under the terms of the contract signed before the seller died. in a way, your buyer died, which will probably be to your advantage.
2007-01-16 16:15:20 · answer #1 · answered by Louiegirl_Chicago 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You could probalby sue for the earnest money -- and you may have a case on the stopped payment as well. But, as most earnest money deposits are only around $500 or so it may not be worth it to pursue it.
Prospective buyers who pull stunts like this quickly get a rep with agents. Stunts like that may come back to haunt them. Call it bad karma if you will...
2007-01-16 15:36:47 · answer #2 · answered by Bostonian In MO 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It depends on the laws in your area & how much you care. You probably could sue, but at what cost? Time? Money? How long was your home on the market? Are you really desperate to sell? It basically comes down to what you have to win & lose.
2007-01-16 15:07:06 · answer #3 · answered by low_on_ram 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Absolutely nothing. Be glad it was just one day after you took it off the market.
My buyer backed out a month later.
2007-01-16 15:06:18 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋