Lost Contract

It seems like transactions are becoming more difficult in a time when everyone should want to make them work. This past week one of my buyers had to pull out of a contract to purchase a home she wanted to buy. When we first found the house I was not able to find other sold homes in the area that supported the price the seller wanted. We eventually negotiated a price but told the seller’s agent it was still not supported by comps in the area and if the appraisal did not support the price, we would ask for an adjustment. Naturally the response had all the right buzz words and we were assured the sellers wanted the deal to work.

The appraisal came back at essentially what the sellers paid for the home a little over a year ago but was $15,000 below what we had agreed to pay. Per our earlier warning, we asked the sellers to adjust their price by $10,000. We thought this was a reasonable request and would lead to a satisfactory resolution. I was a bit surprised when the sellers refused to negotiate further and asked for a release of contract. In this market where buyers are few and far between, to get that close to a sale and lose it seems foolish but then again, there is always information we don’t have.

I wish these sellers good luck, my buyer and I are back out today looking at more homes and there are plenty of them out there.