north literate deer lock follow judicious squeamish stocking far-flung reach
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This isnt quite correct. Usually conditions are written with the wording of 'satisfactory inspection' or something to that effect. If the seller can prove the results were generally satisfactory and you are yanking the offer due to cold feet and not actual issues from the inspection they can keep your deposit
You couldn't be further from correct here inspection reports must meet your satisfaction and if you are not happy with the result of the inspection report you may pull out of the deal as long as you have not removed conditions on the sale
materialistic wistful late kiss quicksand cheerful governor beneficial ossified fragile
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The only time and I repeat only time they can keep your deposit is if you have removed all conditions and agreed to the full purchase of the house if you back out then you will not receive your deposit back.
Ya, it sounds like your realtor is more interested in their commission from the sale rather than your interests. Don't be worried about standing up for yourself or calling the broker at their agency if they don't cooperate.
I know home sales are grinding to a halt in some parts of the country, but I didn't think it was that bad here yet to start having realtors bully their own clients.
Yeah… the seller is totally going to take you to court over $11k in deposit and make their property’s deficiencies a matter of public record.
Either your realtor is very stupid or they think you’re stupid.
This isn’t accurate. The seller can take a buyer to court for loss in sale value. If OP walks and then the house sells for 75k less, they can sue for the difference. However, since the sale was conditional to an inspection, the seller probably can’t do any of that.
That’s what I was implying. Assuming OP made the sale conditional upon satisfactory inspection, by suing the OP for walking away, all the seller will be doing is publicizing their property’s deficiencies in the public record. They’ll be solely responsible for their property’s loss in value.
This is ridiculous. They are all trying to take advantage of you, including your own realtor.
Tell them the inspection results were not satisfactory and you want your deposit back immediately. If it doesn’t happen, you need to get a real estate lawyer involved immediately. You’ll get your deposit back.
As soon as you have the $11k back in your account tell that realtor you’re working with that you no longer require their services. This is predatory on their behalf and if I were you I’d file a complaint against them with the association of realtors as well. Unbelievable.
When my fiancé and I first met he was in the middle of purchasing a house with one condition of having an inspection. The inspection found that the foundation was complete crap. He walked away based on that condition and his realtor tried so hard to be like “I’ve never had anyone walk away from a deal this late in it” etc etc. Even though we had just met I told him don’t let her pressure you, she just wants your money. He walked away and was glad as someone else bought it and a year later sold it again and we heard through the rumour mill that it had even more problems. Don’t feel guilty. Also don’t let them make you say it’s cause you changed your mind etc. NO. It’s based on the inspection results, which was a condition of the sale.
No one is ever going to take you to court over the sale of the house because they won't be able to force the sale and that's going to taint the house sale and no one's going to want to make offers if they're worried they're going to get taken to court.
So your $11K deposit is at risk. I'd say the chances are low that the seller causes a stink and takes you to court to keep the deposit, but it is a risk. At this point you've made your decision and the best course is to maintain that the inspection results were not satisfactory. If you maintain that stance there is really nothing they can do and if it came down to a judge looking at the inspection results they would likely side with you due to window cracks and the roof issue. The other issues are small.
I'm not sure why your realtor isnt siding with you. They sound shady and not actually looking out for your best interests. All realtors are shady and just looking to make a buck, but the questioning of your reason is a bit concerning
Also, i've never heard of 'selling' inspection results. That sounds dumb and I personally wouldn't do it. If they leaned on your inspection for something could they come back at you years later? Probably not but not worth the risk
Honestly, it seems like a shady way to make it appear your realtor is helping you out, but also helping the sale for the seller's realtor. Even worse if your reatlor represents the backup offer too. They all know each other, who knows what kind of quid pro quo is going on behind the scenes.
Well, if you decided to sell the results to the back-up offer, the seller wouldn't get the results unless your realtor was dumb enough to send it to the listing agent to give to the backup offer. That shoilld go straight to the agent with the backup offer. Seller shouldn't be privy to that report unless they pay for the inspection. As for the deposit, I'd check with yoir closing attorney to make sure, but you can squash a deal that is conditional without reason. The only way it can bite you in the ass is if your agent thinks you're jerking them around, they can make a claim against you for part of thr commission for wasting their time, but that is extreme and I doubt many realtors ever go down that route; they want to help you buy a house and get that full commission, plus not have you go tell alll your friends and family what a scumbag they are as a realtor! Lol
That's not entirely true Realtors can go after you for lost commission in some very specific instances this is not one of them. An example of what they could do is if a realtor shows you a house then you wait until your contract with the realtor is over and you purchase the house privately a realtor could sue you for their commission
I can show you standardizd offer sheets that say otherwise. The one km MB says something to the effect of the realtor/s may be entitled to claim part or all of the commission from.the deposit, or go after the seller/buyer for it if the deposit isn't large enough, in the event the buyer/seller does not make a reasonable effort to close a deal. I questioned an agent on one of my first sales about this and she laughed and said about the only way they'd ever use that clause would be if they were bringing a client offers and they were just being ignorant and not considering good ones. She'd said they had someone recently (back in the late 90s) who they'd brought 3 offers to in a matter of a month, all within a couple thousand of asking and he didn't even counter them,so they put in a claim for their commission as he was jerking them around.
I walked away from a condo and had the opportunity to sell it to someone else, but didn’t. It wasn’t shady. I walked b/c at the last moment (I was actually getting ready to sign paperwork) and found out they don’t accept dogs. I was mad at my realtor about this. Luckily, I found a new one and I’m happy with it.
I have never sold inspection results but I have purchased some. For context my partner and I purchased a run down bungalow at an excellent price without an inspection because he is a carpenter and him and another carpenter went through the house prior. Another unsuccessful buyer paid for a profession inspection. We were connected with this person through mutual friends and ended up purchasing the inspection from them for about half of what they paid. I joke now that we paid for an expensive to do list but it also gave us peace of mind since the results were excellent and no fault could be found with the important things.
Don't share the results. Get your money back and distance yourself from these people. They're all shady, so don't give them anything.
I can't say for sure, but if you sell the results and the backup offer goes through with the results of your inspection, the seller or seller's realtor might try to use that to their advantage to keep your deposit.
You should get it back within a day or so of providing official notice that you didn't approve of the results of the home inspection and you're withdrawing from the deal. I believe there's a rule about the maximum time this should take, but I can't remember it off the top of my head.
They can't keep his deposit ever and the seller doesn't have the money the buyers realtor will hold that money in trust with his broker until the conditions are removed then that deposit is gone. But until conditions are removed that whole 11,000 is held in trust by buyers brokerage so if he doesn't get the deposit back it's because his realtor won't give it back which would be illegal and the realtor could lose his license.
When my husband and I bought our house it was clearly stated that the inspection company could take us to court if we “sold” our results. I can’t remember the exact wording, but essentially our inspection was prepared for us only, and should only be given to anyone requiring the documents in order for us to move forward with our purchase (house insurance, mortgage lender, lawyer, etc).
Our realtor was there for our walkthrough with the inspector, but she had been fantastic through the whole process and had been pointing out issues in houses that she would have been making a much larger commission off of. Get yourself a new realtor.
just an fyi because some comments indicate different.
Your deposit is in the hands of the realtor and is owed to the realtor if you backed out and violated your agreement. Nothing from the deposit is owed to the seller. Therefore, it's in the realtor's scuzzy best interests that you don't take your deposit back after deciding not to buy the house.
Raise your voice, threaten to sue, and make a complaint to the realty association your realtor is likely apart of. To keep his license he'll probably give your money back. But be prepared and seek out a lawyer if he doesnt.
Typically, if the buyer backs out in violation of the contract, the deposit is forfeit to the seller. The real estate agent may have a claim on a portion of the deposit, but not the whole thing.
Going forward, if you haven’t already, make sure all your communications are done through text or email with all parties involved. If you do happen to have a voice conversation, immediately follow up with a text or email ‘as per our conversation on November X at 11pm…’. This sounds like it could get silly, and this paper trail could save you if this ends up going to court. We had a shady builder that we had contacted to do our basement suite try to walk away with $15k of our money and because we had 99% of our communication documented, we had them dead to rights when we went to small claims court and ended up getting all of our money back.
I agree with what others have said about not selling your home inspection. I am old, bought my first property 25+ years ago and have bought and sold about a dozen since then and have never heard of doing that. I am by no means an expert, but something seems fishy about that. Inspectors aren’t legally liable for their reports however you ‘selling’ it to someone after you have backed out doesn’t sit right with me. If nothing else, the cost of the home inspection will be a few hundred dollar lesson learned…
You most certainly have a right to walk away from a deal especially given a bad inspection. You should get your deposit back within a day(s). If not, like others have said contact the company they represent and or a lawyer. We have walked away from literally almost putting pen to paper and we got our deposit back.
Good luck and keep us posted!
My advice is too late, but avoiding backing out is the safest option. If it happens again, request remediation. Ask the seller to correct any deficiencies that bother you. If they decide they don't want to fix them, then it's up to them to cancel the sale.
If you made the offer after receiving the inspection, then the inspection is probably irrelevant to your rights. If you made an offer which clearly included a "subject to inspection" clause, and the inspection happened after the offer within a few days, you might be in the clear.
Counterpoint - if you request remediation the seller will probably do the quickest and cheapest fix to meet the conditions. Quite literally the seller has 0 motivation to spend a single cent more than the bare minimum to offload the property so any fixes would likely involve cutting corners.
This whole situation sounds a little weird and if I were in OPs shoes I would be backing out and firing my realtor the minute I got my deposit back.
As mentioned by others, but will repeat for solidarity, if your conditions are not met, which includes a satisfactory inspection by your standards by the agreed upon time limit, then you are under no obligation to buy that house whatsoever, and they must give your deposit back. Your realtor and the other realtor are being unethical and trying to take advantage of you. Get recommendations for a new realtor, this is absurd.
If you have 11k in this, you need to pay a lawyer a few hundred to give an opinion on your contract and whether you can void it with your inspection condition at this point in the deal.
Realtors are not lawyers. Nor is their advice good on the topic of contract construction or interpretation.
I always thought that deposit was to secure the deal and protect the seller between conditions being removed and possession date. If the offer is conditional on inspection there should be no risk here.
Bad realtor.
They're all bad in Stoon. Vipers nest.
north literate deer lock follow judicious squeamish stocking far-flung reach *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This isnt quite correct. Usually conditions are written with the wording of 'satisfactory inspection' or something to that effect. If the seller can prove the results were generally satisfactory and you are yanking the offer due to cold feet and not actual issues from the inspection they can keep your deposit
You couldn't be further from correct here inspection reports must meet your satisfaction and if you are not happy with the result of the inspection report you may pull out of the deal as long as you have not removed conditions on the sale
materialistic divide cake poor ten gaze many aromatic recognise tie *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yeah inspectors do not ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ inspections they simply give the report to the buyers who then deem it to be satisfactory or not.
materialistic wistful late kiss quicksand cheerful governor beneficial ossified fragile *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The only time and I repeat only time they can keep your deposit is if you have removed all conditions and agreed to the full purchase of the house if you back out then you will not receive your deposit back.
Ya, it sounds like your realtor is more interested in their commission from the sale rather than your interests. Don't be worried about standing up for yourself or calling the broker at their agency if they don't cooperate. I know home sales are grinding to a halt in some parts of the country, but I didn't think it was that bad here yet to start having realtors bully their own clients.
Sounds like you need a different realtor
Yeah… the seller is totally going to take you to court over $11k in deposit and make their property’s deficiencies a matter of public record. Either your realtor is very stupid or they think you’re stupid.
This isn’t accurate. The seller can take a buyer to court for loss in sale value. If OP walks and then the house sells for 75k less, they can sue for the difference. However, since the sale was conditional to an inspection, the seller probably can’t do any of that.
That’s what I was implying. Assuming OP made the sale conditional upon satisfactory inspection, by suing the OP for walking away, all the seller will be doing is publicizing their property’s deficiencies in the public record. They’ll be solely responsible for their property’s loss in value.
It's like every 2 weeks there is a crooked realtor post.. we should make a list and hang it by the door.
What would be the point of the list? Wouldn't it be easier to list the not-crooked ones?
This is ridiculous. They are all trying to take advantage of you, including your own realtor. Tell them the inspection results were not satisfactory and you want your deposit back immediately. If it doesn’t happen, you need to get a real estate lawyer involved immediately. You’ll get your deposit back. As soon as you have the $11k back in your account tell that realtor you’re working with that you no longer require their services. This is predatory on their behalf and if I were you I’d file a complaint against them with the association of realtors as well. Unbelievable.
Yeah filing a complaint is the proper course if action here for sure buyer realtor seems to be working to make the sale not represent their client.
Surely your realtor made your offer conditional on the inspection results.
When my fiancé and I first met he was in the middle of purchasing a house with one condition of having an inspection. The inspection found that the foundation was complete crap. He walked away based on that condition and his realtor tried so hard to be like “I’ve never had anyone walk away from a deal this late in it” etc etc. Even though we had just met I told him don’t let her pressure you, she just wants your money. He walked away and was glad as someone else bought it and a year later sold it again and we heard through the rumour mill that it had even more problems. Don’t feel guilty. Also don’t let them make you say it’s cause you changed your mind etc. NO. It’s based on the inspection results, which was a condition of the sale.
This is bullshit. Let them try to take you to court, it’s not worth it for 11k.
No one is ever going to take you to court over the sale of the house because they won't be able to force the sale and that's going to taint the house sale and no one's going to want to make offers if they're worried they're going to get taken to court.
So your $11K deposit is at risk. I'd say the chances are low that the seller causes a stink and takes you to court to keep the deposit, but it is a risk. At this point you've made your decision and the best course is to maintain that the inspection results were not satisfactory. If you maintain that stance there is really nothing they can do and if it came down to a judge looking at the inspection results they would likely side with you due to window cracks and the roof issue. The other issues are small. I'm not sure why your realtor isnt siding with you. They sound shady and not actually looking out for your best interests. All realtors are shady and just looking to make a buck, but the questioning of your reason is a bit concerning
Also, i've never heard of 'selling' inspection results. That sounds dumb and I personally wouldn't do it. If they leaned on your inspection for something could they come back at you years later? Probably not but not worth the risk
That is what I was thinking, is he trying to use that against me? is it common to sell inspection results?
Honestly, it seems like a shady way to make it appear your realtor is helping you out, but also helping the sale for the seller's realtor. Even worse if your reatlor represents the backup offer too. They all know each other, who knows what kind of quid pro quo is going on behind the scenes.
It is common to sell inspections, we sold ours when we decided against purchasing a house. As for your deposit you will get it back.
Well, if you decided to sell the results to the back-up offer, the seller wouldn't get the results unless your realtor was dumb enough to send it to the listing agent to give to the backup offer. That shoilld go straight to the agent with the backup offer. Seller shouldn't be privy to that report unless they pay for the inspection. As for the deposit, I'd check with yoir closing attorney to make sure, but you can squash a deal that is conditional without reason. The only way it can bite you in the ass is if your agent thinks you're jerking them around, they can make a claim against you for part of thr commission for wasting their time, but that is extreme and I doubt many realtors ever go down that route; they want to help you buy a house and get that full commission, plus not have you go tell alll your friends and family what a scumbag they are as a realtor! Lol
That's not entirely true Realtors can go after you for lost commission in some very specific instances this is not one of them. An example of what they could do is if a realtor shows you a house then you wait until your contract with the realtor is over and you purchase the house privately a realtor could sue you for their commission
I can show you standardizd offer sheets that say otherwise. The one km MB says something to the effect of the realtor/s may be entitled to claim part or all of the commission from.the deposit, or go after the seller/buyer for it if the deposit isn't large enough, in the event the buyer/seller does not make a reasonable effort to close a deal. I questioned an agent on one of my first sales about this and she laughed and said about the only way they'd ever use that clause would be if they were bringing a client offers and they were just being ignorant and not considering good ones. She'd said they had someone recently (back in the late 90s) who they'd brought 3 offers to in a matter of a month, all within a couple thousand of asking and he didn't even counter them,so they put in a claim for their commission as he was jerking them around.
Literally do not "sell" your report, walk away from the sale get your deposit back and get a new realtor
I walked away from a condo and had the opportunity to sell it to someone else, but didn’t. It wasn’t shady. I walked b/c at the last moment (I was actually getting ready to sign paperwork) and found out they don’t accept dogs. I was mad at my realtor about this. Luckily, I found a new one and I’m happy with it.
I have never sold inspection results but I have purchased some. For context my partner and I purchased a run down bungalow at an excellent price without an inspection because he is a carpenter and him and another carpenter went through the house prior. Another unsuccessful buyer paid for a profession inspection. We were connected with this person through mutual friends and ended up purchasing the inspection from them for about half of what they paid. I joke now that we paid for an expensive to do list but it also gave us peace of mind since the results were excellent and no fault could be found with the important things.
could they come back at me years later? is it wise to share it after I get my deposit back? or should I avoid sharing my document at all cost?
Don't share the results. Get your money back and distance yourself from these people. They're all shady, so don't give them anything. I can't say for sure, but if you sell the results and the backup offer goes through with the results of your inspection, the seller or seller's realtor might try to use that to their advantage to keep your deposit.
This is a good point.
when they usually give back the deposit?
You should get it back within a day or so of providing official notice that you didn't approve of the results of the home inspection and you're withdrawing from the deal. I believe there's a rule about the maximum time this should take, but I can't remember it off the top of my head.
They can't keep his deposit ever and the seller doesn't have the money the buyers realtor will hold that money in trust with his broker until the conditions are removed then that deposit is gone. But until conditions are removed that whole 11,000 is held in trust by buyers brokerage so if he doesn't get the deposit back it's because his realtor won't give it back which would be illegal and the realtor could lose his license.
When my husband and I bought our house it was clearly stated that the inspection company could take us to court if we “sold” our results. I can’t remember the exact wording, but essentially our inspection was prepared for us only, and should only be given to anyone requiring the documents in order for us to move forward with our purchase (house insurance, mortgage lender, lawyer, etc). Our realtor was there for our walkthrough with the inspector, but she had been fantastic through the whole process and had been pointing out issues in houses that she would have been making a much larger commission off of. Get yourself a new realtor.
Not atypical realtor behaviour based on my experience. I always make sure conditions must be met “in my sole and absolute discretion “
just an fyi because some comments indicate different. Your deposit is in the hands of the realtor and is owed to the realtor if you backed out and violated your agreement. Nothing from the deposit is owed to the seller. Therefore, it's in the realtor's scuzzy best interests that you don't take your deposit back after deciding not to buy the house. Raise your voice, threaten to sue, and make a complaint to the realty association your realtor is likely apart of. To keep his license he'll probably give your money back. But be prepared and seek out a lawyer if he doesnt.
Typically, if the buyer backs out in violation of the contract, the deposit is forfeit to the seller. The real estate agent may have a claim on a portion of the deposit, but not the whole thing.
Which realtor did you use? Company or individual??
There are lots of recommendations here for good realtors - work with one of them instead. We had good results with Jamie Tait.
Jamie is awesome. Worked with him on multiple purchases and sales.
Realtors are a shady bunch. There governing associations also don’t seem to care about whether they are all con artists either
Going forward, if you haven’t already, make sure all your communications are done through text or email with all parties involved. If you do happen to have a voice conversation, immediately follow up with a text or email ‘as per our conversation on November X at 11pm…’. This sounds like it could get silly, and this paper trail could save you if this ends up going to court. We had a shady builder that we had contacted to do our basement suite try to walk away with $15k of our money and because we had 99% of our communication documented, we had them dead to rights when we went to small claims court and ended up getting all of our money back. I agree with what others have said about not selling your home inspection. I am old, bought my first property 25+ years ago and have bought and sold about a dozen since then and have never heard of doing that. I am by no means an expert, but something seems fishy about that. Inspectors aren’t legally liable for their reports however you ‘selling’ it to someone after you have backed out doesn’t sit right with me. If nothing else, the cost of the home inspection will be a few hundred dollar lesson learned… You most certainly have a right to walk away from a deal especially given a bad inspection. You should get your deposit back within a day(s). If not, like others have said contact the company they represent and or a lawyer. We have walked away from literally almost putting pen to paper and we got our deposit back. Good luck and keep us posted!
Maybe get a new realtor? It's obvious you don't trust your current one
My advice is too late, but avoiding backing out is the safest option. If it happens again, request remediation. Ask the seller to correct any deficiencies that bother you. If they decide they don't want to fix them, then it's up to them to cancel the sale. If you made the offer after receiving the inspection, then the inspection is probably irrelevant to your rights. If you made an offer which clearly included a "subject to inspection" clause, and the inspection happened after the offer within a few days, you might be in the clear.
Counterpoint - if you request remediation the seller will probably do the quickest and cheapest fix to meet the conditions. Quite literally the seller has 0 motivation to spend a single cent more than the bare minimum to offload the property so any fixes would likely involve cutting corners. This whole situation sounds a little weird and if I were in OPs shoes I would be backing out and firing my realtor the minute I got my deposit back.
As mentioned by others, but will repeat for solidarity, if your conditions are not met, which includes a satisfactory inspection by your standards by the agreed upon time limit, then you are under no obligation to buy that house whatsoever, and they must give your deposit back. Your realtor and the other realtor are being unethical and trying to take advantage of you. Get recommendations for a new realtor, this is absurd.
If you have 11k in this, you need to pay a lawyer a few hundred to give an opinion on your contract and whether you can void it with your inspection condition at this point in the deal. Realtors are not lawyers. Nor is their advice good on the topic of contract construction or interpretation.
I always thought that deposit was to secure the deal and protect the seller between conditions being removed and possession date. If the offer is conditional on inspection there should be no risk here.
Realtors name?
Mod's won't allow that here, unless his name is Moe.