I guess it wasn't a good deal!

My husband and I have successfully flipped a few deals. We we’re able to find investors, the deals we worked out with the sellers were good.
But this last one, a shore property, 2 story house with a single wide on the property. Both needing alot of work, we got the price down 40%, and advertised it well. Got lots of call, and it showed pretty good. I always put a closing date of 60 days on the agreement of sale, and I insert a weasle clause, " This contract may be assigned by the buyer to an alternate buyer. Buyer shall not be obligated if alternate buyer does not agree to all terms."
Problem is we haven’t found a buyer in the alotted time. The seller is angry. And I don’t know what to do. We explained that we weren’t buying the house in the beginning but work with other investors who buy properties we find. But none so far have been interested in this one. Maybe because of the work involved. We tried explaining that to her.
This is the first time this has happened, and probably not the last, but, can we be sued? She keeps calling and sending me emails, not threatening, but I’m getting nervous!!!

Howdy Sherry:

Sorry you did not get the results you were looking for on this one. The seller must learn to move on and find another buyer herself. She will earn the earnest money. She can sue but will not win in court. The contract is all the court can go on.

Have you thought of buying it yourself and doing the repairs?

We can’t purchase the property, it’s five and 1/2 hours away, and we’re in the process of moving out of state. Our contract will be up on the 17th of this month. I will advertise it one more week and see what happens.
Thanks for your reply, I feel alittle better now!!!

This is one hazard the GURUs never tell you about. You should ALWAYS be prepared to live up to the terms of any agreement you enter into. If you can’t perform yourself you should not have entered into the agreement. Maybe you were asking too much for an assignment fee.

Truth is though that you may lose your earnest money and you may catch an ear full but it is unlikely that you will be sued. However if you have missed the opportunity to execise your weasle clauses then you COULD be sued for “specific performance”

good Luck!

Rob

We we’re asking $3,000 for an assignment fee, which is what we usually get.

that doesn’t sound out of line to me