Lost my earnest, lost the deal. Buyer walks away un-scathed!! :-(

[Neil Hauger]

Today I learned a hard lesson. I thought I had a deal done. All cash offer on full asking price. Purchase agreement was signed. Earnest money was to be deposited with my Broker. Instead, the buyers agent said, "its normal here that the title company escrow the earnest money, I will drop it off with XYZ company, they are good".  By the time I got back to her she said she had taken the money to the title company, even though my purchase agreement clearly stated that the Sellers Broker (me) would escrow the check. Fast forward 8 days of calls to the agent and said title company , trying to be calm and work with her, and trying to confirm the check arrived.  No check!   I finally get ahold of the agent today and she said the buyer had walked the property and has now decide he does to want to buy the land! 

BTW, there was no inspection contingency so in my opinion this was trespassing. But I am no lawyer. Next I called the title company as in my opinion, the buyer lost his earnest money right!? I wanted them to cut me a check in the name of my broker and send it over immediately.  Only to find out the buyer agent told the title company the deal fell through and they gave the check back to the agent. So now what do I do? I cannot just make him send me a check??

Lesson learned going forward. Sign purchase agreement and get the check my self at the signing. No relying on any other agents. Now I have to explain this to my seller. Not going to be happy.

[Account Closed]

Was your purchase agreement in escrow? Did the funds actually clear? What does the WI PA say regarding canceling and EM funds. Does the buyer get 3 days to change their mind? The fact that escrow "returned the check" is not good. It means the buyer changed their mind within a day or two. Or you have a sloppy escrow agent. EMD should be deposited and cleared or wired asap. There should be no check to return (unless WI law has a cancel period).

No escrow agent here would ever return cleared EMD without both parties consenting. Too much liability.

I track EMD like a hawk. I wire my own funds the same or next day when I'm the buyer. And I cancel on buyers who don't wire or drive over certified funds in 3 days. I have no time for that nonsense. Lots of wholesalers out there these days with no EMD, happy to market your property and find a buyer with EMD. I'm ok with this if they actually have a buyer...... but they have to live up to what they signed in writing......depositing EMD into escrow. The other issue is buyers with HMLs who say they have cash but hope I don't notice when they fail to deposit EMD. I notice.