Frustrated! Question? Offer same as purchase agreement??

Hello Regina, the offer has only your signature "one way", once the seller signs it becomes a purchase agreement. In my state, you can always back out of the deal as long as the seller hasnt signed as they havent accepted your offer.

They are not the one you want to work with. Buy the new book 30 days to real estate cash. Everything you need to know is in there.

Oh, this is a good question; I hope there is more input.

But Tom even if the seller signs and accepts the offer, what about the earnest money to open escrow?

Very good questions!

Some experts please answer!

First of all find a different agent because you will never convince your agent that you are right or you will waste a lot of time trying to prove your point to them.

All you need to have in your contract to back out is your 14 day inspection clause. If you cant find a buyer in 14 days then the deal wasnt good enough anyway.

If you do have to use your inspection to back out it will work with no problems. Just tell the agent you saw something you didnt like and back out.

The other thing you can do is put a clause in there saying "Subject to partners approval." Your partner can be your invisible friend, your dog, cat, hampster, doesnt matter...if your partner doesnt approve, your out of the deal free and clear.

You don't want to back out unless the numbers don't work or you found out something you didn't know before like, the ac and heater need to be replaced, there's mold growing in the home, etc... It makes a bad impression on people when a person constantly backs out of deals. Thats why you want to make sure you can quick sell/rent/whatever you want to do, for the profit you want, before getting into a legally binding contract.
If the agent keeps giving you problems, find a new agent.
As for earnest money I believe either the seller will tell you how much earnest money they want or you just write into your contract you're putting down $10 earnest money. How much to put down as earnest money IS NEGOTIABLE!! What Matt Larson said comes to mind. "Every time a seller calls me to complain that I'm putting down a dollar earnest money, and I need to put down a thousand dollars, they have the idea that as soon as I put down that thousand dollar earnest money, they can take that money immediately and spend it on whatever they want. That's not the case, that money goes into escrow and doesn't come out until the deal closes and if the deal doesn't close, the earnest money is refunded. After hearing that, the seller usually says 'Oh, okay, never mind then'"
(quoted as best I can remember). Just something to think about.
Of course Matt is a seasoned real estate investor who's pretty well-known, so maybe for the first few deals, you can put 500-1000 dollar earnest money down, until other investors and real estate professionals see that you are serious and produce great deals consistently.
Hope that helps and good luck!

RENinja

I agree, yes you want your offers to be in the right area of town (where your buyers want to buy) and at the right price (65% of the ARV minus the repair costs, minus your assignment fee.)

Make your offers accurate so you do not have to back out.

Dont put yourself at risk.

Great advice and thanks so much everybody!!!

A clause would allow you out if it the property does not meet the terms of your clause. You could ad a clause such as " offer contingent on 10-day inspection", "offer subject to property inspection suitable to buyers partners".....there are different clauses that can be added to a contract. Look at the top of the DG website and click on search. Type what you are looking for and you should be able to read information about terms to ad to your contract.

back out of a contract.
It is binding, that is why you put your EM down, as a security deposit, which you lose when you back out (you breach the contract); therefore, you put down as little as possible as EM, in case you need to breach the contract- because you lose that money.
Ideally, you have a clause that gives you 30, 60 days for 'inspections', so that you can get your buyer to assign the contract to; if your inspector finds something pretty bad with house, you can negotiate the price, or back out-legally.

Learning and progressing every day,
Valerie