All Forum Posts by: Melissa N.

Down payment is 50k, earnest was 10k. Long story short..the broker is being unethical and unprofessional. My lawyer will handle all communications from here! 

I don't feel like he is going to 'steal' the money but I want to get as far away from him as possible. Not sure his motivation for the dishonesty. 

We contacted our lawyer this morning. He has the contracts and everything and will take it from here. Thank you everyone! This has been very valuable. 

@kimberlyh My husband gave him a check on the 20th when he met him to write up the offer. I looked up his license when we started working with him.

I'm calling the RE commission when they open. I'll check if what he is saying is even remotely true...I think he just tells 1/2 truths but in any case I rescinded the offer and can talk to the owner later. Perhaps we just give the agent a finder's fee. I just work with someone this shady!

And yes the EM is in the contract.

@Waynebrooks yea I'll pm you. Thank you!! 

I am going to call the real estate commission just to check the rules too. 

I know this agent doesn't do many commercial deals so I am hoping that this is all because he simply doesn't know any better. He has lied to me about other things so I think he is simply more comfortable "bending the truth" than I am.

We may try to see if he'd be willing to put the EM in an account with the title company. That will help us feel more confident. Worst case I've spoken to the seller numerous and perhaps I can work something out with him.

Yes, thank you everyone. We are going to back out of this deal. Part of me doesn't want to because I want it! But at the end of the day, this agent has lied to me numerous times and I just can't trust that. He is a dual agent in the deal so no one else to ask. We were doing seller financing because the owner wants to retire and likes the idea of keeping the cash coming in. Sad. Hoping to find something else soon. At least I've learned a lot...that's what I'll tell myself when paying for all of the inspections! 

I've never used it, but I believe someone on BP suggested Propertyshark.com on another forum. 

BP is a great resource for networking, information, and the calculators are EXTREMELY valuable. When posting, I think it's important to add valuable information or words of encouragement for those of us that are new and quite frankly - scared! 

To be clear, he wants to hold 40% of our down payment (not the total price). So we put 10k earnest money now he says we need to give him another 10k.  Now he emailed and said he needs 10k more because another broker told him it is required for audit. He said he needs it to be wired overnight. 

I have his request in email so I can easily forward along!

@Ned Carey Yep! Very nervous right now.  My alarm bells are sounding. I'll try to call the Real Estate Commission and see what I can find out. Thank you!! 

He's been caught in a few 'white lies' already and offered one of the inspectors money (my money! To do, I don't even know what). I am still interested in the deal but this guy is too much.  I will try to contact another broker to see if this law even exists - if there are any commercial brokers from SC around - I'd love to work with a professional!