Laurie
Pre-takeoff checklist
I'm going to contact an attorney on Monday morning, but I wanted to see if anyone had any advice/comments to offer regarding this situation.
I put an offer in on a home a week ago yesterday. It's a short sale, but when I signed the purchase agreement and put my initial deposit/earnest money down the real estate agency I was working with believed that it was already bank owned and well into foreclosure. This meant that my offer was going directly to the bank and I would not be dealing with the seller whatsoever.
This is not the case. Yesterday my agent contacted me saying the seller signed the agreement and is presenting it to the bank for short sale consideration. So far so good.
Today I go to give my agent another $5K to put in escrow towards down/closing etc. and she informs me that there is another contract on the house that was signed by the seller 3 weeks ago. Both contracts will be presented to the bank to see which they will honor or counter offer.
Two contracts/purchase agreements on the same home? Since mine was the second one signed, is it even valid for consideration? Why was it allowed to be presented to the seller and signed if the home was already under contract? Should I turn tail and run, and if I do, can I get my initial deposit back, OR should I just put the other deposit in and hope I come out on top or can get it all back if I don't?
I'm really concerned about the legality of all this. Any comments or specific questions that I should be sure to ask the attorney I contact? Anyone else have experience with short sale situations? Of the homes I've looked at over the last couple of months, easily 90% are short sales or foreclosures, so even if I don't go ahead on this one I'm going to run into this situation again.
Thanks.
I put an offer in on a home a week ago yesterday. It's a short sale, but when I signed the purchase agreement and put my initial deposit/earnest money down the real estate agency I was working with believed that it was already bank owned and well into foreclosure. This meant that my offer was going directly to the bank and I would not be dealing with the seller whatsoever.
This is not the case. Yesterday my agent contacted me saying the seller signed the agreement and is presenting it to the bank for short sale consideration. So far so good.
Today I go to give my agent another $5K to put in escrow towards down/closing etc. and she informs me that there is another contract on the house that was signed by the seller 3 weeks ago. Both contracts will be presented to the bank to see which they will honor or counter offer.
Two contracts/purchase agreements on the same home? Since mine was the second one signed, is it even valid for consideration? Why was it allowed to be presented to the seller and signed if the home was already under contract? Should I turn tail and run, and if I do, can I get my initial deposit back, OR should I just put the other deposit in and hope I come out on top or can get it all back if I don't?
I'm really concerned about the legality of all this. Any comments or specific questions that I should be sure to ask the attorney I contact? Anyone else have experience with short sale situations? Of the homes I've looked at over the last couple of months, easily 90% are short sales or foreclosures, so even if I don't go ahead on this one I'm going to run into this situation again.
Thanks.