Sellers backed out of real estate deal?
The sellers of the property I was to buy on Oct 15th, got cold feet. The contract price was 292k, but the home appraised for 265k. Since I had financing contingency, the sellers decided to bite the bullet and sell. Their lawyer contacted mine notifying him of their willingness to agree to the lower price. They live in Florida, and since the closing was so close to the time they agreed to the new price, they decided to sign the addendum in-person. They arrived in VT (I live in NYC), on a Friday, and the day they showed up, the wife decided she didn’t want to sell. The justification they used was that, I emailed their agent asking about the asbestos in the basement and the siding. My email to the agent was after their verbal agreement to sell at 265k, and it was essentially asking to talk about those two items. It was directed to the agent, not to the sellers, so I feel she should have called me directly, but instead, she sent the email to the sellers, who received it while they were traveling to VT.
I think they were already having misgivings about coming down so low in price, and used it as a means to back out. I maintain that it was not a counter-offer. They never signed the addendum. I called the sellers directly and pleaded with them, but they ultimately decided that if I couldn’t come up with an offer that would "knock their socks off", or hit the original contract price, they were going to withdraw the property, and not sell it.
I asked them if they’d be willing to hold a 2nd mortgage for the difference, but they said no. What should I do? I am trying to come up with enough money to meet them half way between the appraisala and the contract price before my loan expires, but it’s looking grim. I have until Nov 21. I’ve looked at other properties, but none fit the bill in the ways this one does. Any suggestions? Do you think they’d change their minds?
February 4th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
“verbal” agreement to sell at 265k
Unfortunately, the sellers were well within their rights to back out. Since your offer was contingent on financing and you couldn’t obtain adequate financing, the deal was dead unless they agreed in writing to come down in price.
It’s downright stupid to pay more for a house than its appraisal value. That puts you upside down from the get-go. Why would you want to do that?