We signed an agreement to sell our house in June without a realtor's
involvement, and now we think we sold it for too little. It's now
almost a month after our second scheduled closing date (after signing a
written agreement to extend it once). We have called the escrow company
a couple of times since then to cancel the sale, and they agreed that
we are no longer obliged to sell the house, but they couldn't release
the earnest money unless the buyers also agreed to release it.

Meanwhile we have been talking to several different realtors to list
our home. It's taken a while, since the house is just across the state
border from most of the local population, so most local realtors are
not licensed in the state where the house is located. We have a realtor
coming out tomorrow and expect to list it this coming week, however.

The buyer just called me an hour ago to say that the loan has funded
and the sale has been recorded, and he wants the keys. Of course, this
is the same guy who has been promising the moon for the last several
months. I have heard nothing from the escrow company.

What is our best option to cancel the sale and list the house if what
the buyer says is true?

Thanks,
Ed

In article . com, "Ed Roberts Jr" wrote:
We signed an agreement to sell our house in June without a realtor's
involvement,

[big snip]
What is our best option to cancel the sale and list the house if what
the buyer says is true?

What does your attorney say? Oh, wait, I bet you tried to do this without an
attorney's involvement either. Right?

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

In article . com,
Ed Roberts Jr wrote:
We signed an agreement to sell our house in June without a realtor's
involvement, and now we think we sold it for too little. It's now
almost a month after our second scheduled closing date (after signing a

[...]

The buyer just called me an hour ago to say that the loan has funded
and the sale has been recorded, and he wants the keys. Of course, this
is the same guy who has been promising the moon for the last several
months. I have heard nothing from the escrow company.

What is our best option to cancel the sale and list the house if what
the buyer says is true?

Your ONLY option is to verify that the closing has closed and if so,
give them the keys.

--
Rich Greenberg Marietta, GA, USA richgr atsign panix.com + 1 770 321 6507
Eastern time. N6LRT I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67
Canines:Val, Red & Shasta (RIP),Red, husky Owner:Chinook-L
Atlanta Siberian Husky Rescue. www.panix.com/~richgr/ Asst Owner:Sibernet-L

In article . com,
says...
We signed an agreement to sell our house in June without a realtor's
involvement, and now we think we sold it for too little. It's now
almost a month after our second scheduled closing date (after signing a
written agreement to extend it once).

Clarification: does this mean you currently do *not* have a written
extension agreement with the buyer?

We have called the escrow company
a couple of times since then to cancel the sale,

Another clarification: does this mean you called to ask about
cancelling the sale, or did you in fact instruct them to cancel the
sale? Was any of that in writing?

The buyer just called me an hour ago to say that the loan has funded
and the sale has been recorded, and he wants the keys.

If you have no current contract with the buyer, and you've instructed
escrow to cancel the transaction, on whose authority was the sale
recorded? Something doesn't add up.

If in fact the loan has been funded and the sale has been recorded,
then either they've completed their end of a valid contract, and you
need to get out of the house per the terms of your agreement, or
they've recorded the sale without a valid contract.

Of course, this
is the same guy who has been promising the moon for the last several
months. I have heard nothing from the escrow company.

What is our best option to cancel the sale and list the house if what
the buyer says is true?

Have your lawyer go over whatever paperwork you do have and see if
there was a valid contract in place or not.

--
is Joshua Putnam
http://www.phred.org/~josh/
Braze your own bicycle frames. See
http://www.phred.org/~josh/build/build.html

"Ed Roberts Jr" writes:

We signed an agreement to sell our house in June without a realtor's
involvement, and now we think we sold it for too little.

Uh oh.

It's now almost a month after our second scheduled closing date
(after signing a written agreement to extend it once). We have
called the escrow company a couple of times since then to cancel the
sale, and they agreed that we are no longer obliged to sell the
house, but they couldn't release the earnest money unless the buyers
also agreed to release it.

They are covering their ass there likely.

The buyer just called me an hour ago to say that the loan has funded
and the sale has been recorded, and he wants the keys. Of course, this
is the same guy who has been promising the moon for the last several
months. I have heard nothing from the escrow company.

What is our best option to cancel the sale and list the house if what
the buyer says is true?

Sounds to me like the sale may have closed. You'd have to buy it back
from them.

These are definitely questions for your real estate attorney or
realtor if you have one for those sales. If you don't have a real
estate attorney, sounds like you need one asap. They are typically
some of the best money you'll spend in a real estate transation and
are pretty reasonably priced.

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Did you have a lawyer review the contract before you signed it? One
thing I don't understand is how a closing could happen without the
seller knowing about it. Here in NJ the seller and buyer usually meet
to sign the documents and transfer title. The only way I could see
this dragging on for months and then one day you found out it closed
when the contract had expired and you no longer wanted to sell it,
would be if you signed either the closing documents or a power of
attorney long before the actual closing. If you did that, it was a big
mistake.

I'd get over to the escrow company immediately and find out if it has
in fact closed. If it has, I think you're out of luck. If it hasn't
tell them and give them written instruction that the contract has
expired and the sale is off. Then get to an attorney.

Attornies are not typically used with home sales here in the West. In
fact, I even called an attorney a couple of months ago to represent me
at the closing. He said, in essence, the job wasn't worth it to him for
the small amount he could reasonably charge. He also said that the
escrow company has a duty to make sure that everything is taken care
of, and they're not going to up and flee the country just for the
amount of money they could get by not paying off my loan.

This morning the buyer sent a man with a bulldozer out to clear the
creosote bushes off the property. I left a message with the escrow
company (it was pretty early) and called my lender, who told me the
loan was NOT paid off and they had no information about any impending
payoff.

If my loan in fact does get paid off and I get the rest of the money
I'm not going to try to undo it, but until that happens I've heard a
lot of reassurances from this buyer with nothing substantial behind
them.

Ed

"Ed Roberts Jr" writes:
Attornies are not typically used with home sales here in the West. In
fact, I even called an attorney a couple of months ago to represent me
at the closing. He said, in essence, the job wasn't worth it to him for
the small amount he could reasonably charge.

Call more attorneys. Call your realtor board and get a referral to a
real estate savvy attorney. You're starting to get into a situation
that's likely to escalate.

He also said that the escrow company has a duty to make sure that
everything is taken care of, and they're not going to up and flee
the country just for the amount of money they could get by not
paying off my loan.

This morning the buyer sent a man with a bulldozer out to clear the
creosote bushes off the property. I left a message with the escrow
company (it was pretty early) and called my lender, who told me the
loan was NOT paid off and they had no information about any impending
payoff.

I'd be calling the buyer immediately with that information above, to
cease and desist. Do it in writing if at all possible.

Then I might be calling the police then regarding trespassing, but
you'd like to avoid that if you hav eany interest in this sale
continuing.

If this sale hasn't gone through and those folks screw up your
property, you've got bigger problems then.

If my loan in fact does get paid off and I get the rest of the money
I'm not going to try to undo it, but until that happens I've heard a
lot of reassurances from this buyer with nothing substantial behind
them.

You've got a hell of a situation on your hands. It doesn't sound like
a good time to time to sit back and let it play out and see what
happens.


--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

"This morning the buyer sent a man with a bulldozer out to clear the
creosote bushes off the property. I left a message with the escrow
company (it was pretty early) and called my lender, who told me the
loan was NOT paid off and they had no information about any impending
payoff. "

Instead of calling your lender, why don't you get your ass over to the
escrow company and ask to see the closing documents, copies of the
checks, etc.? The escrow company has to know what did or didn't
close. And this just shows how these marvelous western style
closings, with no lawyers, can wind up with people getting screwed.

On 23 Oct 2005 14:56:12 -0700, someone wrote:


What is our best option to cancel the sale and list the house if what
the buyer says is true?

What does your lawyer say?

The escrow company is not YOUR lawyer, and they can't do anything with
the funds unless BOTH parties agree (or they receive a court order
from someone).

Cancelling the sale is one thing. If they did not close by a time is
of the essence deadline, well ask your lawyer how good a chance you
have (sounds good to me).

The earnest money is something else entirely. Why would the (dumped)
Buyer agree to turn it over to you? YOU think you are entitled to it,
but you'll probably need to convince a judge to go along with that
before you can ram it down the other guy's throat. What I have done
in similar cases is to settle for giving back half. But if there is a
broker involved, they may still try to claim their commission out of
the escrow!!

So if you think you can sell it for more, AND you have a valid reason
under the contract to cancel it, then go ahead, cancel, give them back
their earnest money, and then sell it to the next guy. If you want to
sell it for more PLUS keep the earnest money too, in addition to
looking a bit greedy, it looks like something that would require a
lawsuit. The escrow company will just sit on it until they get either
joint instructions or a court order.


Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file.