OfflineI've been working on one of my offers for over a month now. All the contingencies have been taken care of, some MAJOR ones actually. I had this property assigned and ready to close escrow this week and now the Assignee doesn't want to do the deal. Believe me, I've felt very screwed over at this point since the assignee was involved in this process from almost the beginning. I've had other buyers who were interested but they have since moved on to other deals. Now the interesting thing is this. The sellers had 2 other offers 15K more than mine, but they accepted my offer first. The sellers Realtor knows my assignee is getting cold feet and suggested assigning the contract to those other people who also had cash offers. I didnt even think of this tactic. So the lesson for today is if you have someone who you're going to assign a contract to and they back out, find out if there were other offers and assign to them. They obviously were interested and perhaps they still are.
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Would it be possible to get some earnest money upfront from an Assignee?
If someone gets cold feet at least they have some cash in the deal and would be less likely to back out. In addition, if they did back out, you have something you could go to the seller with to get an extension and/or cover some of your expenses.
P.S.> once someone has done a few deals with you I wouldn't see the need for earnest money from them.
I put my own earnest money into the deal so there is the chance I'm going to lose it. But that is something I'm going to change next time by having the Assignee put up the EM.
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Good job on looking at the various alternatives. That situation is exactly why you need to have multiple buyers on your buyer's list. If the first one backs out you, have at least two or three other alternative buyers to show the property. A great suggestion on making the assignee put up their money as soon as they accept the contract. That give you protection and leverage with the potential buyer.
Don't forget those others who made offers, if they're not already on your buyer's list, add them.
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I'll have trouble on that one because they were represented by other Realtors. But I know I can find with a little leg work. I'm not worried, I know I'm going to get this closed and then I'll be able to breath a little easier.
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