Keeping EMD, Your Opinions!

[Brian Pulaski]

Without boring everyone with the story, I'll keep it brief.

I had a house that went under contract mid June (never listed it on the market). All inspections/appraisals took place. Come mid July (original closing date), it was found the title company had not pulled a municipal search (this takes 30 days). Come end of Aug the search came back good, buyers mortgage was all approved, appraisal was good, inspection was good, everything was in place. The phone call this morning, which should have been to schedule my closing, informed me the buyer was relocating to FL, and backing out of the deal...

Yes I have read the contract. Yes I have spoken to my attorney and once we receive the formal cancellation plan to revisit. Yes real estate is state to state and even town to town... however, what do you think my chances of being able to keep the EMD in this situation?

REI is business and emotions are best left out, but man it is hard to just laugh it off when a couple hundred thousand dollars is sitting in a house, that we missed the spring market and now have to list and go through the process again 2.5 months later! The famous saying I guess... "it is what it is".

[JD Martin]

I think you have a strong case for keeping those funds based on what you have posted. Relocating to another town is not a good reason to fail to close, unless they are in the military and are being redeployed. The whole point of earnest money is to provide the buyer a compelling reason to follow through and close on the deal.