Bid on a house and now one I like more just came on

[Anonymous]

OP, you can retract your offer BEFORE the seller gives a response, even if you gave a 2-day window.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here with an update.

I talked over the situation and my desires carefully with my agent, explaning that I really wanted house #2, but didn't want to do anything shady or unfair to the owners of house #1.

Per her advice I submitted an aggressive offer on house #2 while still waiting to hear back about my not very aggressive offer on house #1. Not surprisingly, the owners of house #1 countered my offer, upping the price and changing some of the terms. (If they had accepted my offer as is then I would have pulled my offer on house #2 before those sellers had a chance to respond to it, and bought house #1.)

Shortly thereafter, the owners of house #2 accepted my offer with no counter. After I signed the contract for house #2 I let the owners of house #1 know I wouldn't be accepting their counter. This all happened within the course of 24-48 hours.

Although I do feel slightly bad for the sellers of house #2, I truly don't think I did anything unethical, and I'm confident they'll be able to sell with no issues despite wasting a day or two with me.

Morale of the story: go for the house you truly want. There's a way.

You rolled the dice and got lucky

Rolled the dice? You imply she was at risk somehow. She wasn't. OP congrats on finding a house. This board can be so nasty!!

She rolled the dice because if both sellers had signed, accepted and returned her offers in a short span of time with no counters, then she would have been obligated to purchase both houses with a valid contract. If she received the second of the two offers before she could respond to the first of the offers, then she would be under contract for both and the law does not grant you a right to cancel a signed contract. At a minimum, you can expect to forfeit your EMD for the contract you break. The penalties for such actions vary from state-to-state, but she could have been in a lot of financial distress over that one.

Lawyer here. There would have been a less stressful way: When you make an offer and have not yet heard back that the sellers have accepted, YOU CAN REVOKE YOUR OFFER ANYTIME, and of course get your deposit back.

You can revoke your offer at any time, UNTIL THE SELLER SIGNS AND ACCEPTS YOUR OFFER. After the seller has signed, and returned the contract with no changes, it is a legally binding contract and you cannot just rescind the offer and get your deposit back. You have to break the contract and the seller has to be willing to break it and return any deposit. The seller is under no obligation to do so and actually has a vested interest in forcing you to adhere to the letter of your contract.

[Anonymous]

Again, in OP's case, the seller had not signed yet.