We have our condo listed through a Realator and had an offer that we acceppted from a buyer. We agreed on pricing and have both signed a Buy/Sell agreement. The earnest money was only $100 as apparently the buyers don't have any money to put down for a down payment.

We got a call last night from the Relator (who is serving as a dual agent) that the buyers are getting cold feet now and may not want to go through with the deal. He told us he informed them that it's a legally binding contract and they are obligated to purchase the condo regardless.

Before we learned about them wanting to back out we signed a buy/sell agreement on a house we want to purchase.

I'm not looking for legal advice as I realize this is not the place and do have a call into an attorney. I guess I'm just looking for anyone that has experienced buyers wanting to back out of the deal and how it panned out.

Can you still get financing for the house, or was it contingent upon receiving proceeds from the condo sale?

If you can, it may be simpler to just go ahead and buy the house, and then refi with larger downpayment as you sell the condo to someone else

Sounds like you have a whopping $100 coming your way!

xoneinax said:Why would your "dual-agent" allow them to put up so little earnest money, just $100 ? That doesnt seem to be looking after your interests, the seller's interests.

Agreed completely. Find a different selling agent. This guy is a crook or a moron. $100 is not earnest money, that's dinner.

Economist said:Can you still get financing for the house, or was it contingent upon receiving proceeds from the condo sale?

OP - Did your purchase contract for the new house have a financing contingency out? How much earnest money did you put down on that contract?

As for the $100, sounds like you were had.

edit: What was the negotiated selling price on that deal that fell thru?

FWIW, 20 years ago earnest money often was in the neighborhood 1-2% of the asking price. Sometimes higher, sometimes lower. 5% was not unheard of.

It is not the amount that matter. It is why OP accept it. I am in S. Cal. I had purchased 3 houses before. S. Cal is a really hot market (well at lest in San Gabriel Valley area). Minimum that I see people put down is $5000. OP, has the escrow been opened yet?

Why o why do people commit to such HUGE purchases without spending $500 on a lawyer?????

What's earnest money? Money to basically say "I'm interested in buying this, don't give it away to anyone else"?

Oops...chuzzlewit's post went up while I was writing mine. Sorry.

$100, what a joke

In NYC if you buy a coop, the custom is 10% of the purchase price. In my case it was just over $13,000 that I gave to the seller's attorney to keep in escrow