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Seller refusing to return our earnest money

Nightmare of a process, my realtor screwed us up. I have not been able to sleep over this. Listing the timeline

-Thursday evening we put an offer and sign the contract (7/24) with 5 CALendar days to pull out of the offer but inspection date TBD

-7/25 Friday morning our agent calls and says “well they have accepted the offer and it is as is - but you do have the option to back out if you find the inspection report unsatisfactory”. She did not mention this the day before when we were figuring out the price, in fact she gave them a range way higher without talking to us. Sign as is clause with our option to back out - 7/25

-Our realtor kept rushing us to make a deposit, Friday evening- sent an online link, we told her we’ll do money order on Monday. It takes a day to transfer funds and get a check -We called several people, was so hard trying to find earliest inspector on Friday, few were available but Tuesday-Wed, none on the weekend. Finally made few network calls to find one.

-Her text to us reminding us of dates on Friday: Contract execution date - 7/24 Inspection Date - TBD Inspection Deadline -7/29 Inspection negotiation deadline - 8/3 This is what my husband was going by.

-Monday 6/28 deposit hand delivered to seller’s agent, Inspection completed, report received by 7 pm

-Tuesday 6/29- based on the findings we decided to pull out. my husband and I had 31 minutes call with her but she wouldn’t listen or agree. She said you don’t want your deposit to be forfeited. I told we had the full right and within deadline. she kept pushing - I’ve a guy, HVAC inspector who can check it again. We told her no, she said let me check k w broker firm if you can get the deposit back - Did not hear from her so called conference call again at 3-30. She confirmed we are ok to get the deposit back. - Again 15 minutes call, she said how do I phrase it? What do I tell her, we should re-negotiate, what price do you guys want to offer? We shut her down and ask her to pull out. Told her to NOTIFY the agent. Send the paper work. (Found out later she did not) 4-45 calls again and tells me we have till Wednesday 5 pm, time to think. My husband thought it was 5 days from inspection date.

7 pm - I call her to send paperwork to terminate no response.

6/30 -Wed 6 am I text her to send us paperwork stating “as we discussed yesterday and agreed and asked you to pull the offer back, send us the paperwork” , called at 10 am to remind again 1-30 we signed and send paperwork, I text her to forward it to seller. Till this point she had not talked to the agent, did not answer my call 3-30- husband calls demanding answer, now she is making excuses that agent is not happy, giving her an attitude etc.

she said we passed the deadline and they won’t return the deposit. So we are having the broker’s lawyer talk to the seller’s attorney.

Took so many sacrifices to save this amount, Emotionally exhausted and shocked at the turn of events, rushed deadlines, stalling the process.

Would someone find it ethical to keep money like this? What is my recourse? Can contract date be considered 7/25 as we signed the as is clause? If inspection date is tbd on contract how can you have 5 calendar days to negotiate it?

I plan on talking to the broker firm- Coldwell banker’s attorney. Maybe listing agent?

submitted by /u/Any-Condition-2965
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1mdxy71/seller_refusing_to_return_our_earnest_money/

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