Seller Contract Cancellation Rights?

[Yash Patel]

I am in a peculiar situation. I signed a contract to purchase ($700k) home and entered into escrow. The home inspection showed a lot of repairs, so I decided to cancel the contract. My realtor sent “Cancellation of Contract” to the seller.

The seller called us back saying that they are willing to fix the repairs if we are interested in moving forward. We decided to move forward and ordered an appraisal. The appraisal came at $660 and now the seller is not happy. Our contract stated that if the appraisal comes lower than the contract price, we will pay an additional $10k over the appraised value. In this case, it is $660+$10=$670.

The seller is unhappy with the lower appraisal. Can the seller now back out? Per contract term, seller agreed has agreed to lower the contract price if the appraisal came lower.

Can seller back out from the deal now? Noting that we (buyer) sent the contract cancellation notice to them in the past. It was never signed returned by the seller.