If I am understanding the question correctly, when you were told there was a contingency sale on the property, it means that if the seller accepts your offer, the first offer, with the contingency, if it was a back out clause contingency, has 24 or 48 hours to either remove the contingency and buy the home or not remove the contingency, which would mean you would get the house. That should have been explained to you when you put in your offer. Although, the rules vary in different states, this is the way it works in my state.

Susan,

You never received a copy but you initialed changes but did the sellers? Because if they didnt they technically are not in agreement since there were changes made to the agreement.


Sean Dawes

Please keep in mind that what I'm writing (and have written) are my own opinions based on my own experience, and I'm not an attorney, so this isn't legal advice.

If the closing date change is the only one that both you and the seller didn't mark with your initials, then "marking the changes" is a red herring. The key issue is that you have a fully executed contract, and you claim that the Receiving Party wants to exercise rights that aren't specified in any of the terms of your contract. If you, your agent, or your agent's broker have any doubts about your claim, then you should have a real-estate attorney review your contract to validate your claim.

Assuming your claim is valid, then recording your contract will place a cloud on the title. Doing this will prevent the seller from circumventing your claim, because s/he won't be able to sell the property with a clean and free title without first having worked with you to resolve your claim. You can opt to force him/her to perform if you really want the property, or you can ask him/her to return your EMD along with the amount you spent for the various inspections, appraisals, etc as part of your due diligence. Either way, if you two weren't able to work anything out, and if you had to go to court over this matter, you'd be in a MUCH stronger position if had recorded your contract. (You can verify this independently with any knowledgeable real-estate attorney.)

We never received a final copy after we did the initialing but we can still follow through on the initial closing date of May 30 if all parties and professionals agree to do a closing on a Saturday.

Like Lori said, did both parties initial every change the contract?

This is very important.

You probably should have an attorney review your contract. Assuming your contract has no contingencies for the seller to accept multiple offers or to back out of your contract except if you failed to perform, then I believe the seller can be forced to perform or pay damages.

While you're at it, you probably should record your contract with your local clerk of courts office. That will place a lien on the property, so that the owner can't sell to another buyer without having first cleared your lien.

I think I read a very important line in your last post that says "except we did make one change that the seller did not initial after we sent it back".

Our realtor did talk to both brokers and both brokers talked to each other at length. They feel since the contingency contract was extremely vague, they feel they owe it to the other buyers 10 days to get their loan agreement from the bank proving they are going to purchase the house regardless if they sell their current house. So, they basically are telling us our contract really isn't "binding" or "legal" because he has more than one contract in the works. However, I'm still confused on this issue. Our contract does not have any contingencies in it and there were no changes made without initials from both parties except we did make one change that the seller did not initial after we sent it back. All along we talked about a June 1 closing and the contract stated May 30 which is on a Saturday so we changed it to June 1 and initialed. We can do May 29 but now that the seller is giving the other party 10 more days, it's going to be pushing it with our bank because we are refinancing our rental home and we need to close on that before we can close on this loan.

If it is a signed deal with both parties on there and they did not change anything on the agreement, then I see no reason how they could switch their mind unless you default on your contract. Has your realtor notified their broker and what did the broker say?



Sean Dawes
Long and Foster Real Estate Inc.