Need help with possibly fishy purchase offer

[Mike Day]

Hi all! I am currently in the process of doing my first home sale and am in need of some advice about an offer that seems slightly fishy. Hopefully someone with experience can help out here.

So I got a full-price offer from a real estate agent, most likely someone my own agent knows personally, on the very first day my home was listed. Of course, I said I'd sign it. Then I read it, and, well...

The first thing I noticed is that the offer is assignable (the buyer is listed as the name of the agent "or nominee"). Apparently the agent thinks they're going to be able to find a buyer for more than the price of their offer and pocket the difference. I don't have a big problem with this as I don't think my home is underpriced. My concern is that the agent will tie my home up for the entire escrow period, not find a buyer to assign the offer to, and then somehow weasel out of paying the earnest money deposit (which is sizable). There's no financing contingency, but there's an inspection contingency, so I definitely see the possibility of weasel-y behavior.

So, do you guys think this is fishy? And how do you bulletproof an offer so they can't weasel out of paying the earnest money if they can't go through with the deal? Any feedback much appreciated.

[Ned Carey]

You can limit the time of the inspection contingency. It should only take a few days to get an inspection, give them a week.

One clause I put in contracts when selling is:

If someone is intending to assign the contract this will generally draw that info out. Or it might be a big surprise at closing. A good surprise for you the seller, and a bad one for the buyer.