Legal Advise: Real Estate

[Soul_Patch]

We listed our house to sell Back in April and we contract within 2 days. Since then it has been very sketchy. We are set to close on the 18th, but i find out today, after much prying, than the buying party is MIA. The title company has recieved no paperwork from them, no one can get in touch with the agent.

Our contract was originally set to close on the 10th of May, then they asked to extend it to the 18th. So the current contract we are under is expired.

My agent is telling me it isnt looking good, and we should probably consider relisting the house. Which has me fucking livid...

long story short, we stand to loose a lot in this fuck up and i want to know if it is worth it to try and sue the other party.

[Soul_Patch]

If someone knows a reputable real estate attorney, a name would be appreciated.

[Marcus Bryant]

You in SA?

[whottt]

long story short, we stand to loose a lot in this fuck up and i want to know if it is worth it to try and sue the other party.



Probably not.

[whottt]

My question is didn't you receive any earnest money? I mean that's sort of the entire point of it.

[ploto]

Their financing probably did not come through.

How do you stand to lose a ton of money? Were they willing to pay too much for it-maybe the appraisal came in too low.

[tlongII]

I don't think you have any legal recourse. Did you get any earnest money?

[Soul_Patch]

Woops, sorry i let this slip and have been busy.

Once we had a contract and verbal commitment we put earnest money down on a new house (1250) and another deposit of $4880 at the home studio to start building. The original contract was set to close May 10th. The guy is a millionaire investor that had a line of credit to buy 14 houses. He misjudged and didnt have the room to buy ours. We spoke to him yesterday and he still wants the house, and is working on securing another financing option, but will not sign an amended contract pushing the closing back to 5 June and another 1300 in earnest money until he knows abou this back up financing. What pisses me off the most in all of this is that he knew he didnt have the financing a week ago, yet didnt tell us. Meanwhile we put all the deposits down, and are fully packed up in boxes with no where to go.....

So technically the first contract expired, i get his 500 dollar earnest money deposit (woopty dooo) and now my house is back on the market with no contract. This guy could come through again, but im not going to "sit tight while he works it out" which is what he wants us to do.

[BacktoBasics]

I bet you're just itching for a little physical violence. Good job keeping a level head.

[Soul_Patch]

Funny thing is, i talked to this dickhead...he is some older european guy, sounds romanian, and try's to be real domineering, like we should just do whatever he says...F him...i only regret not asking for more earnest money up front in the original contract.

[CosmicCowboy]

He's probably Russian mafia. Better not piss him off.

[Soul_Patch]

He's probably Russian mafia. Better not piss him off.

that thought actually went through my mind....

It actually makes a lot of sense, i know Mafia used to launder their money by buying up entire subdivisions back in the late 70s and early 80s...there are things in place to curb that now, but who knows.

[to21]

Woops, sorry i let this slip and have been busy.

Once we had a contract and verbal commitment we put earnest money down on a new house (1250) and another deposit of $4880 at the home studio to start building. The original contract was set to close May 10th. The guy is a millionaire investor that had a line of credit to buy 14 houses. He misjudged and didnt have the room to buy ours. We spoke to him yesterday and he still wants the house, and is working on securing another financing option, but will not sign an amended contract pushing the closing back to 5 June and another 1300 in earnest money until he knows abou this back up financing. What pisses me off the most in all of this is that he knew he didnt have the financing a week ago, yet didnt tell us. Meanwhile we put all the deposits down, and are fully packed up in boxes with no where to go.....

So technically the first contract expired, i get his 500 dollar earnest money deposit (woopty dooo) and now my house is back on the market with no contract. This guy could come through again, but im not going to "sit tight while he works it out" which is what he wants us to do.Did you put something in writing with the new house (agent) that you buying that one was contingent on selling this one?

[Soul_Patch]

Did you put something in writing with the new house (agent) that you buying that one was contingent on selling this one?

Yes. They needed a signed contract to move forward, which we had. It is still contingent, but they are due to start building in a week or so. If we dont pull out before then, we forfeit our deposits / earnest money.

[CubanMustGo]

Funny thing is, i talked to this dickhead...he is some older european guy, sounds romanian, and try's to be real domineering, like we should just do whatever he says...F him...i only regret not asking for more earnest money up front in the original contract.

Lose the jerk and put your house back on the market. He's trying to play you.

[whottt]

This is exactly why you always go for max earnest money. I can also see why you want to sue and think it might be a good idea. I'll just tell you what little I know from my year as an agent: You probably won't win this case(because he probably will have a better lawyer) and even if you do you probably won't get much more than the cost of the lawyer to sue him, and then there is a very strong chance you won't win the case...especially if he says he's willing to honor the contract and is only incapable of doing so because of a temporary shortfall.

IOW, big huge headache for you with little or no upside and the likelyhood of you getting the money you need or have lost is virtually nil.

Not only that but since he's loaded this whole deal probably won't bother him much at all.

Then again, if he was truly loaded he wouldn't have given you only $500 in earnest money.

[Soul_Patch]

This is exactly why you always go for max earnest money. I can also see why you want to sue and think it might be a good idea. I'll just tell you what little I know from my year as an agent: You probably won't win this case(because he probably will have a better lawyer) and even if you do you probably won't get much more than the cost of the lawyer to sue him, and then there is a very strong chance you won't win the case...especially if he says he's willing to honor the contract and is only incapable of doing so because of a temporary shortfall.

IOW, big huge headache for you with little or no upside and the likelyhood of you getting the money you need or have lost is virtually nil.

Not only that but since he's loaded this whole deal probably won't bother him much at all.

Then again, if he was truly loaded he wouldn't have given you only $500 in earnest money.

My thoughts exactly, although ive been told investors dont like to tie up their cash in earnest money / escrow...regardless i know better for next time. Since relisting wednesday afternoon, ive had 3 more lookers. 16 total since the house was listed mid april, and 1 offer (bogus or not)...so i got my hopes up.

Just got a call from our builder they poured our new slab this morning, so we are in it for the long haul now...we cant get out of this anymore, unless we take a 6k hit.