The section you are referencing is titled, Buyer's Right To Terminate on the N.C. Offer To Purchase. Please "re-read" the section and become familiar with it. If you do not understand that section, please refer back to your Agent/Realtor/Broker for clairification. A Realtor is prohibited from providing any legal advise. We are also restricted by our Code Of Ethics to discuss the specifics of your situation because you are being exclusively represented by another agent/firm. You should also refer any legal questions to a local Real Estate attorney. This should have been discussed with you and you should have been presented with and signed the Professional Services Disclosure and Election.

In an effort to provide you a general response, based on the information you provided here in your post, you indicated that there was a period of 25 days after the Effective date. Note: remember that the "effective date" begins on the date the last signature is received. Therefore, if your "effective date" was in fact May 26, 2009 then 25 days from that date would be, June 20, 2009....well within the Buyers rights to terminate based on paragraph (c) Buyer's Right To Terminate. If your closing was scheduled for August 31, 2009 and you received his written notice for termination 10 days prior (Augues 21, 2009) then the buyer is past the agreed to date and can still terminate the contract but will forfeit his Earnest Money to the seller as liquidated damages, per paragraph 5 (c) of the N.C. Offer To Purchase.

The buyer has an obligation to provide you the seller written notification of application from the lender. HOWEVER, you the seller also had an opportunity to make written demand for compliance from the buyer. If the buyer failed to provide you with confirmation from the lender within 5 days, then you could have terminated the contract by written notice and all Earnest Monies would have been forfeited to you.

The N.C. Offer To Purchase is VERY date specific! It is the duty of the parties and the agents to make sure that these time frames are met. Without knowing exatly what you agreed to in your offer, it would be extremely difficult for any agent to be able to provide you with a reasonable answer. My advice again would be to speak directly with your agent and/or their broker in charge for further clairification.

Hi Dee,

Not sure what contract you are looking at but the standard Offer To Purchase for North Carolina states basicly that as long as the buyer is acting in good faith and doing everything that he can to obtain financing then he has the right to have his EMD returned if financing falls through. Sad to say for sellers but we are seeing more and more of these situations every day. I had one just this week and it occured 3 days prior to close. We are also seeing it take longer just to get to the close table especialy with VA loans. We have gotten commitment letters from the underwriter (who by the way has pretty much the final say so) and still had them come back and delay close for additional requirements. I hate that this has happened to you but it is the nature of the market at this time. On the good side though the market is picking up in many areas at a steady pace and we are seeing sell prices level off insted of declining so I bet you may see another buyer just around the bend.

Best wishes,
Eva Foster

Dee-
Please have the buyer give me a call. It is possible that his credit scores dropped and his VA lender had a strict requirement for a credit score that killed his deal - even though nothing changed with him personally. We do not have a minimum credit score requirement for VA and Govt loans and I have my underwriters and processors sitting across from my office. If you want to retry and close fast, please let me know.
I am sorry that this is happening to you but the best thing we can do now is get this resolved.

Luke Allison
Bank of America Home Loans
828-777-8828
luke.allison@bankofamerica.com