Short Sale, House Lost
We have been in a short sale transaction for about a month now. The seller approved our offer and it was submitted to his lender. For about 3 weeks our agent was told the lender was still considering the offer. A few days ago we were told we had verbal approval and the written approval was coming soon.
Last night the seller’s agent called to say the lender had approved the sale not to us but to a Short Sale Specialist company that had been enlisted by his client to buy the home.
So while we though our application was being reviewed the seller was actually working with another buyer.
Has anyone heard of this before, do we have any legal grounds here since we had a contract with the seller? I would think the lender/seller would be required to disclose the other offer to us and that we would have to cancel our contract in order for them to proceed?
We are concerned we lost to property due to unethical behavior on the seller’s part.
Unfortunately, I have had a similar case happen to me. In real estate, verbal agreements mean nothing. Unless you had a signed contract from the Seller (with no contingencies) than you do not have a case.
Just ask to get your earnest money back (if you paid any) and look to your next purchase.
Look at it from the flip side, as a purchaser you can work on multiple purchases at the same time and you can then only select the ones that work best for you. Unfortunately, it is part of real estate that we all must deal with.
Good luck.
JS.
Did you have a signed contract with the seller? If I did I would record it in the registry to put a cloud on the property to tie up the sale and make them pay you.
No there was only a purchase contract. We do not have any earnest money down yet. They were just not forthcoming in letting us know there was another offer.
everything depends on how the property was listed on your MLS. if it was listed as a short sale and that lien holder/3rd party approval is required, then no, there are no legal grounds for you to go after the other agent.
Unfortunately even with a signed contract by the seller, the lien holder has the final say so if your offer did not receive written lien holder approval you are out of luck.
thanks for the replies, so do you basically believe that short sales will still be a viable business for REI ? I havnt seen the details of this bill yet and I WILL read it but if the govt buys these mortgages too high then it might creat a price floor which could mess with our biz.
thanks
There is little doubt in my mind The Fed will overpay for the mortgage securities.. since nobody else will come close to what lengths The Fed will go to keep its Wall Street backers happy..... hence the Wall Street bailout. Irrespective of what it pays for the mortgages, fair market value will predicate the workouts (loan mods and short sales)
$700b is peanuts compared to what happened Monday when the House dropped the ball. That NYSE drop corresponded to $950b loss in market capitalization....forget the 2000 point drop the market is off from the peak. Course if you don’t care about savings and retirement it’s not an issue. The whole story at datacorner.
[ Edited by pastorbee on Date 10/02/2008 ][ Edited by pastorbee on Date 10/02/2008 ]
has anyone seen a bullet point summary of the now >400 page bill?
I heard that RTC, Resolution Trust Corp, hired 10,000 people to "resolve" the S & L mess in the 1980s. Whoever oversees the current handout--I mean, bailout--will probably need at least twice that many. Who better than seasoned SS investors (who are currently in kind of a limbo anyway right now) to run this crazy process of unloading all the REOs? Maybe some of us should moonlight awhile...learn the ropes...write up a course to sell...be "Cash in on the Bailout" gurus...