help!!!

Hi girls--I wanted to first start off by saying hello! I haven't been on here in a long time!

I figured that someone on here could probably help me............here is my dilemma..

i recently found a house, put a bid on it (which got accepted), got the engineer in there within 2 days of signing the binder/lead paint paper (the real est. agent told me that we needed to get the engineer in there asap-so we did), we signed the contract.--the home owners were to sign a week later
BUT
within that week the sellers showed the house on their own w/o any real estate representation and accepted a higher bid thus pulling out from our offer..........i am upset about losing the house because we really liked it and spent so much time waiting for the bid to be accepted, etc.

my concern now is getting my money back that i put out for the engineers report, & if i have to pay the lawyer and mort. broker

my question is
has anyone been through this before? have you gotten your money back and if so how? what are my legal rights since the sellers pulled out? To top it off, when we signed the binder, i asked the agent what happens if things go wrong-do i get my money back for the engineer and she told me if i pull out, i wouldn't but if the sellers pulled out and accepted a higher bid i would get my money back---now the sellers don't want to pay and the agent seems to be trying to go around what she said---what should i do?????? help!

wouldnt there agent company be part resposible since the owner was in contract to sell through that agent? (unless it was stated otherwise in a contract the owner can sell to whom ever at any point)

just my personal experience, we was gonna buy a house from owner while he was still in contract with a reality group.. we waited for the contract with them to expire, then we procedded with our docs... but he turned around and did what happen to you... we were about too book enginner then he said he got offered more and didnt want us to buy

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Posted by Blu-ize

That's a mess. If you already had the house inspected, the sellers may not be able to back out without some financial liability. You should get your binder back. You may want to talk to your attorney. If they were purposely not signing the contract, they had an idea that they were not going to sell to you. This is unethical and it can have some ramifications. Again, I would get my attorney involved.

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I agree, and in addition, they will also have a liability to their broker, whom they decided to leave out of their process. They are in breach of contract with them as well, I am sure, so it might not hurt to contact the listing agent & see if you can work together.

This happened to us, but it was before the deposit check was cashed so we just made a stop payment on the check and then the listing agent paid for that fee.
good luck & definitely talk to your RE attorney as well.

Just so you know there are different contracts a Seller can sign with an Agent. An exclusive contract that means they are exclusively selling through one broker/office, an open contract that means that if teh agent arranges a buyer then they pay the commission but if the seller finds their own buyer they are not obligated to broker fees, and third an MLS listing which multiple brokers can show the property but they split the commission. So you can't say that they are in violation of the broker/seller contract without knowing the terms.

Hopefully you get all your money back. You definitely will get your binder back. I normally recommend to wait to get the inspector out till you're in contract.

We had that happen to us on the first house we bid on. The engineer went in checked everything out and we were suppose to go to contract on Monday and on Sunday I get a phone call saying that the seller backed out no reason behind it. They cut us a check within a week for the engineer since they backed out of it. The lawyer didnt charge me anything at that point b/c he knew i was going to use him eventually when we found another house.

After a bunch of research I found out that legally the seller can pull out of the deal at any time in NYS until you go to closing. Nothing is a done deal until closing. If they do back out once the contracts are signed you may sue them for any expenses you incurred but that is it they can do it Although there is a very very slim chance that this will happen.

We later found out that the seller got cold feet since they were going to move to vegas and decided not to sell and completely pulled out of the market.

hey girls--thanks for your advice/opinions/experience!!!
I am still battling to get my engineers money back---the real estate agent is not being very helpful at all---she's like i have nothing to do w/it--------meanwhile she is the one that said i'd get my money back------these agents seem to tell you what you want to hear just to make a sale ........i will not give up though--i am giving it one more day before i make a complaint to the real estate owner, etc. i'll keep you posted!