Builder (LGI Homes) will not refund $5000 security deposit

[Kush Khandelwal]

I was in contract to buy a SFR property in Charlotte, North Carolina and had paid a $5K earnest money deposit. This was back in February 2021. Now sometime in June, I heard from their agent that the SFR was nearing completion and they wanted to close end of July. I wrote back saying that I wanted to push out the closing by 1-2 weeks as I needed to buy this property as a 1031 exchange and my sale was also closing around the same time, July 29th to be precise.

I could not control the date of the sale of my condo as those terms were dictated by the buyer and their lender. Hence I reached out to the seller, LGI Homes, to have 1-2 weeks buffer in case my condo sale was delayed. I needed the money from my sale to pay the builder. 

On July 1, LGI Homes agreed then to move their closing date to the first week of August (all this via email). I breathed relief that we won't be cutting this too close. 

However, then I heard from them again mid July and they set the closing to July 29th, the same exact date as my selling condo! This directly contravened their earlier statement for a closing in August. They just would not budge after that. 

Best case, it could have worked out, however unfortunately, my sale condo had some last minute hiccups and it didn't close until August 6th, one week late. 

I didn't have the cash to pay LGI Homes on July 29th, the day of closing. I asked them to wait just a few days but they wouldn't listen. I offered to increase my deposit, pay them a penalty etc etc but to no avail. 

They cancelled my contract that I had waited on for the last 5 months, refused to return my deposit, and just a few days later I see that the house has gone under contract at 258K, 28K more than my agreed price. They turned around and put the home immediately back in the market. 

As a result, I'm 33K in the hole. 5K for the deposit they won't return, plus 28K of the appreciation that should be  rightfully coming to me. 

Do I have any legal remedy here?

Oh, and I bought this property through RWN (Real Wealth Network). They are not being very helpful.