Did she not give them a check with the offer? That has to count as cash, That should not be refundable, generally.
That sounds wrong. This is a done deal, offer accepted. They can’t accept any others, so why an open house? I’d be creeped out.
The listing agent is probably trying to collect names of other potential clients who are also in the market. And /or looking for a back up offer on the house. In a hot market that is par for the course.
But no contract in writing? I’d say no written contract with a deposit, no house. Why does she think a verbal acceptance, with nothing written down is a deal? I think they are trying to BBD her, not look for a backup. I hope I’m wrong.
If there is nothing in writing signed by BOTH buyer and seller there is NO contract and NO deal. Period. End of story.
I think your D has been misled by her agent.
Usually a written offer is accompanied by a deposit. If the seller hasn’t responded in writing, your D doesn’t have a contract. If I were the seller, I would not accept an offer without having an open house (unless your D’s offer is too good to be true) and I would want to wait and see if there are other offers.
I believe its a little different in NY. That said, I recall when the buyers made an offer on my late dad’s house, the offer was agent to agent with a $ deposit put in escrow. The written contract came later. It seemed odd to me as thats not how its done where I live,.
D1 is very detailed oriented. She has researched and done whatever is feasible, necessary or possible! So apparently it is possible to lose an offer/bid acceptance for no reason. It has not happened yet, but she is concerened.
She had an attorney. But by the law of ridiculous coincidences, the attorney turned out to be the same as the sellers. She then got another attorney that turned out to be a grad of her university’ and same major. She trusts this attorney. So she is doing everything by the hooks.
in a hot market or when a hot property hits the market, with potential buyers circling like sharks, deals need to be put in writing and signed quickly. The seller has no reason to wait around for a potential buyers’ contract and good faith deposit, when others are knocking on the door.
Its just the way it goes sometimes.
morrismm, I’m still unsure of why she believes she has a contract, when she has no acceptance of the offer signed by the seller, and has not put a deposit down. Are you sure that the only thing she has is verbal acceptance given by the agent? And why would they not give her the acceptance of the offer immediately, signed by the seller? I don’t know that if it is an accepted offer, signed by the seller, that one can lose it…without fear of lawsuits, certainly not for a higher offer.
What is her agent telling her about this? Her agent should be the one dealing with the listing agent, and it should not have to fall to her to research things.
The first attorney should have told her he/she also represented the seller. That sounds like a conflict of interest.
D1 lost the apartment. Seller wanted no mortgage contingency. D1 said no way. Although she already has talked to her banker and is approved for a mortgage, something could still go wrong. With no mortgage contingency that would mean a loss of about $115,000.
I asked why this was not known up front when offers were being made and accepted. She said this was her brokers fault. And I guess hers for not asking. Now she will ask.
I should say… “With no mortgage contingency, that means she could possibly have a loss of $115,000 if something were to go wrong.” She was not willing to take the risk even if being minimal. She said she has read and heard too many horror stories.
I don’t think your daughter has any fault in this. She can’t be held responsible for asking every single question, the broker should be filling her in on everything, and particularly anything unusual. I wonder if either the broker is incompetent, or has another client who is buying the apartment.
I agree that her broker should have known. I became worried, as stated in earlier threads, that there was still an open house. Did this seller get a full cash offer and now present this mortgage contingency to get out of my D1’s offer?
My D1 had and would have put down a down payment when offer was accepted if she could have had her lawyer check out some things and down payment would be refunded if things didn’t check out.
Maybe they are hiding something or maybe it is just a seller’s market.
"Maybe they are hiding something or maybe it is just a seller’s market. "
Makes you wonder. Perhaps they didn’t want an appraisal, nor an inspection. However, they could have countered back saying no appraisal, no inspection, no mortgage. They didn’t have to accept the contingency in the first place, when they accepted her offer. I tend to think these deals are all about money. If they realized they could get an all cash offer, and maybe more money, they decided to go for it. That seems really shady to me. Perhaps she’s better off that it fell through early, instead of having it fall through right before she planned to move in. I don’t like shady stuff either, I want people to be up front and honest.
So I can tell you something that has worked well for me when the market is hot, though some people are really against this. I contact the listing broker myself, and ask if they are willing to work as both the listing and selling agent, since I don’t have one. Of course, they ALWAYS jump on this, because they get dual commission. I suppose you get less leverage in the deal, since really they do want the place to sell for as much as possible, so you wonder if they really are representing your interests at all. However, they REALLY want the deal to go through, and they will move heaven and earth to make sure it does—so they can get that dual commission. I contacted one broker within 30 min after a hot listing went on the MLS, and he met us 30 minutes later, wrote up the deal, and it was off the market before anyone even knew it was on the market! He was incredibly motivated to make that deal, come hell or high water, it was going to go through. And now, a couple of years later, it is worth twice what we bought it for.
She needs to get her deposit into escrow fast, if she has a written accepted contract. That pretty much seals it until contingency release period is up.
Apparently at least parts of the Atlanta market are pretty hot. A friend’s D just sold her house (listed <$200K) the first day on the market with multiple offers over list price. I hope my kids will be so lucky when the time comes. I saw the listing before I heard about the offers and cringed. She hadn’t taken her parents’ advice about neutral paint, decluttering, etc., but clearly that made no difference.
@artloversplus, that is a pretty nice place. I have been up there a few times. 
When you forget something and have to go to the grocery store…what a pain! Great views though! There are nice places to walk in that area.
I think there was a Russian billionaire who a had a place to shoot guns in his house on that street. He got arrested for something.
Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf lived very close to the house that is for sale. They sold their place for over $20 million and the new buyer tore the property down. Andre Agassi lost millions on the house. Brad Gilbert’s mom was Agassi’s realtor. Supposedly the poor purchase caused the end of Brad Gilbert working with Agassi.