All Forum Posts by: Anita DeHart

We did not get a copy of the appraisal - the sellers' agent had it from a previous deal that fell through - I'm guessing because house didn't appraise for the offer amount.  She said she saw it and it was for the amount we were offering. Even though we can't prove she said it was for a higher amount, the fact that she saw it and knew it was for $20k under what we offered is a material fact that she knew, the sellers knew and they knew we did not have access to the information so we didn't know. That makes it something that should have been disclosed.  Not only did she not disclose it, but she lied and said it was for higher than it was. Had she disclosed that we would not have made the offer we made.

We recently submitted an offer on a house.  The sellers agent recommended we remove the appraisal contingency due to competing offers.  She told our agent that there had already been an appraisal and that although she couldn't share the exact amount (since it was paid for by previous buyers whose sale fell through) and that it came in at at what we were offering.  So we removed the contingency. We are now in escrow and it turns out the old appraisal is significantly less than our offer. Do we have recourse for selling agent lying about the appraisal amount (even though we don't have proof) or at least that her failure to disclose the lower appraisal amount is a failure to disclose relevant fact that could have affected our decision to purchase this house.