Or is there a way I could get it back? Just wondering if I lose that
money as stated in contract or if there are ways to get my deposit back.

"Dwayne Hoover" writes:

Or is there a way I could get it back? Just wondering if I lose that
money as stated in contract or if there are ways to get my deposit
back.

You'll want to engage a real estate attorney for advice on this.

You should plan on losing your earnest money if you back out due to
cold feet, but practically, it probably wont' happen. You sould be
aware that legally you could end up losing more than that if the
seller can demonstrate actual losses that exceed the earnest money as
a result of your breach of contract.

However, that said, the real estate professionals I talked to when I
was selling my house and worried about a seller potentially being an
ahole and backing out on the contract said that "though you think the
contract says it pretty clearly, practically, I've only seen escrow
money awarded to a seller maybe twice in my last 10 years."

The rub is that by the time the issue gets in front of a civil judge,
if the subject property is sold by then (which it nearly always is
with the backup of our court system), the judges usually dismiss the
case unless the seller can very clearly demonstrate and prove actual
losses. If the house is sold, it's pretty hard to do that.

The usual way pain in the butt buyers worm out of these contracts is
either within the framework of the inspection contingency, or the
attorney's review contingency, or the financing contingency.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

In article , Todd H. wrote:

However, that said, the real estate professionals I talked to when I
was selling my house and worried about a seller potentially being an
ahole and backing out on the contract said that "though you think the
contract says it pretty clearly, practically, I've only seen escrow
money awarded to a seller maybe twice in my last 10 years."


I agree. My real estate attorney said the same thing. Much more common
is for the buyer to receive damages when the seller backs out. However,
if the seller sold the house for a lot less than what you offered you
might have a problem.


Dimitri

Todd H. wrote:
"Dwayne Hoover" writes:

Or is there a way I could get it back? Just wondering if I lose that
money as stated in contract or if there are ways to get my deposit
back.

You'll want to engage a real estate attorney for advice on this.

You should plan on losing your earnest money if you back out due to
cold feet, but practically, it probably wont' happen. You sould be
aware that legally you could end up losing more than that if the
seller can demonstrate actual losses that exceed the earnest money as
a result of your breach of contract.

However, that said, the real estate professionals I talked to when I
was selling my house and worried about a seller potentially being an
ahole and backing out on the contract said that "though you think the
contract says it pretty clearly, practically, I've only seen escrow
money awarded to a seller maybe twice in my last 10 years."

The rub is that by the time the issue gets in front of a civil judge,
if the subject property is sold by then (which it nearly always is
with the backup of our court system), the judges usually dismiss the
case unless the seller can very clearly demonstrate and prove actual
losses. If the house is sold, it's pretty hard to do that.


It's actually very easy to prove damages if the house is sold. The
damages would be if the house sold for less than the previous
contracted amount, plus any carrying expenses during the interim. If
the house quickly sells for the same or more, then there are no
damages, or they are so small that they aren't worth pursuing, which is
what happens frequently.







The usual way pain in the butt buyers worm out of these contracts is
either within the framework of the inspection contingency, or the
attorney's review contingency, or the financing contingency.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

You don't state what this situation is. Are you building a house and
you have put down a deposit to hold a lot, for example ? In that case,
you're out of luck.

If you paid earnest money in the process of buying someone's house,
around here that goes into a holding account. It is not automatically
given to the seller if you renege, as every Realtor (scum) would tell
you. It is awarded based on arbitration.

Usually the cause when earnest money is returned is that the buyer
can't get a mortgage under the terms designated in the offer, or one or
more "serious" physical defects are found that the seller is not
willing to fix. Serious is up to interpretation, around here the
Realtors (scum) say it has to be something major like a 2 meter wide
hole in the roof. In reality, and ymmv, it's anything that could
possibly affect the safety (like an electrical junction outside a
proper box) or longevity (small leak).

On 10 Aug 2006 09:21:12 -0700, "Dwayne Hoover"
wrote:

Or is there a way I could get it back? Just wondering if I lose that
money as stated in contract or if there are ways to get my deposit back.


Well I'm guessing here but you already said "as stated in contract" so
I'd guess yes.

// doug //
website: MyHomeRebate.com
"Buy New Homes for Less in Texas"