wrote in message
oups.com...
.....is this
legal? Where did I go wrong. Please help!

I'm not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. And my last closing was in
1999. I speak as someone who has been party to several closings, and not
one has gone smoothly. So here goes....

Local laws and customs come into play here. In the Chicago area, this would
probably never fly. If they deposited the check, chances are they're on the
hook, but you'd have to sue them to force the sale. I have a friend (in
Chicago) who was in this situation. He hired a lawyer who threatened to sue
the seller. The seller would have lost (in more ways than one) and so
decided to honor the original sales contract. But there's a lot we don't
know about your situation, especially since you only mention one payment...
more on this shortly.

I don't know if having a closing date TBD is a deal breaker. No Realtor in
Chicago would present a contract without a closing date specified. Its part
of the negotiation, and until its settled, you don't really have a contract.
A closing date can be changed, but it does need to be specified.

Here, a contract is settled in stages. First, all parties say they agree to
the terms, at that point the initial (and usually small) deposit ("earnest
money") is deposited. At this point, the seller is not supposed to be
dealing with other buyers, and you have a valid contract but there are still
several ways to break it. The contract will state that an additional
deposit is to be received by a certain date. There will be a certain number
of days for attorney approval (for both sides), mortgage approval, and home
inspection. You haven't discussed the time frame involved so possibly one
of these factors is at play, which could leave you without recourse. If all
these contingency dates pass, then I'd say you probably have a pretty solid
contract, which means "someone offering me more" is not a valid reason for
breaking the contract.

Again, I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. Please let us know
what happens.

SteveO