The Swamp

So, i mentioned in these parts I am moving. We had a contract on our house, no contingencies as the buyer was pre-approved to buy ours without their home needing to sell. All well and good, right? Wrong. Underwriter disagreed, deal fell through one week before we were to close.

We asked them to try to find new financing to try to keep the deal, they said their guy did everything he could to get the deal done and didn't want to do that. We struck a verbal deal that we were going to put our home back on the market, but if they sold theirs before we did, we would honor the original agreement.

Well, the day we put it back on the market, we get a call and someone comes to look at it the next day. They come back for a second look three days later and make an offer, which after negotiation we accepted. This deal has zero contingencies as the new buyers are renting now, and they are working with a realtor, and that gives me some peace of mind.

Anyway, I've been having an internal struggle about keeping the 1k earnest money from the original buyer. On one hand, we got a buyer four days later. On the other, we lost the townhome we were moving into temporarily while our home is built, and now it looks like we will be in the lurch for a week or so and have to live out of suitcases.

What say the swamp? Keep it or give it back to them.

Keep

Does KY have any laws on such things, or is this completely up to you guys? If the latter, did you end up out any fees for the initial deal falling through or from having to re-list your house?


The prospect of buying and selling at the same time is about the most daunting thing ever.

Keep. You took on all the risk by taking your house off the market, trusting that they could really buy it. The fact that your house resold quickly should be irrelevant.

And it's not just four days after you relisted - it's all the time between accepting their offer and your getting a new one.

That $1K was buying your commitment to them for that time. They broke that commitment, not you.

If they had made that same deal with a bank or other corporate entity, there wouldn't even be a consideration of getting that money back. It should be no different with you.

rass wrote:Does KY have any laws on such things, or is this completely up to you guys? If the latter, did you end up out any fees for the initial deal falling through or from having to re-list your house?


The prospect of buying and selling at the same time is about the most daunting thing ever.

Neither of us was represented by a realtor, so that's why it's a bit hazy. But no, we weren't out anything. They had already paid for a home inspection and appraisal.

We feel like we did everything we could. They had no contingencies, were pre-approved, but the people with the money pulled the plug.

And they won't call us back now, so they've probably already stopped payment on the check.

spend it on hookers. win, win for the local economy.

Shirley wrote:Keep. You took on all the risk by taking your house off the market, trusting that they could really buy it. The fact that your house resold quickly should be irrelevant.

And it's not just four days after you relisted - it's all the time between accepting their offer and your getting a new one.

That $1K was buying your commitment to them for that time. They broke that commitment, not you.

If they had made that same deal with a bank or other corporate entity, there wouldn't even be a consideration of getting that money back. It should be no different with you.

Shirley is correct.

The Sybian wrote:

Shirley wrote:Keep. You took on all the risk by taking your house off the market, trusting that they could really buy it. The fact that your house resold quickly should be irrelevant.

And it's not just four days after you relisted - it's all the time between accepting their offer and your getting a new one.

That $1K was buying your commitment to them for that time. They broke that commitment, not you.

If they had made that same deal with a bank or other corporate entity, there wouldn't even be a consideration of getting that money back. It should be no different with you.

Shirley is correct.

And so is Sybian.

Offer, accceptance. time, consideration.

Yep. Keep the money. Cash the check, and if they have stopped payment, small claims.

Went to cash the check, they had a stop payment on the check. YAY small claims.

nm