Seller backing out of MFH deal

[James Wierzba]

I am (was) under contract for a 5 unit MFH.

I was under contract with contingencies for inspection, appraisal, and financing.

Everything was lined up to close except for the appraisal. My financer charged me $850 for it, and after a week, told me that the vendor backed out and we need to pay $1400 to get it done. Another week goes by, and we hit the closing date and it passes (it was yesterday).

My agent had been trying to get the sellers to sign an extension but little did we know, they were dodging us because they actually changed their mind and did not want to sell.

So here we are, 1 day after closing, just learning all of this. I'm wondering what recourse I have. From what I can see, there is nothing I can do except get my earnest money back (which we are working on now).

Is there anything I can do (or could have handled better) with the financer? He told me there is regulation that prevents him from having control over the appraisal timeline. This makes no sense. This means every real estate deal is completely dependent upon the appraiser.

I'm sorry this thread is mostly just a rant. As long as I can get back my earnest money and appraisal fee (the appraisal never even got ordered) then I will only be out 650 for the inspection and can chalk this up to a lesson learned. (It is not clear what that lesson is, though ...)

[Mindy Jensen]

I'd go one step further and say the other side has the right to the entire EM deposit, as you did not get an extension. They were under no obligation to extend the contract past the original date.

I would need more information about the way your agent handled this, but I'd be furious if my agent allowed my closing deadline to pass without informing me I should cancel the contract if I cannot get an extension. 

I am an agent (NOT soliciting) and I put all my contract dates in my calendar PLUS one day before, so we can make sure we're hitting them all and not losing our earnest money.