I have signed a standard purchase agreement with a listing agent on a house. The listing agent is also the owner of the house I want to buy. I did not have an agent for me involved in the signing. The purchase agreement is contingent on my selling a rental property I own. The contingency has no expiration date. The agent has gotten back to me and says she needs money now and cannot wait for my rental to sell. She is going to put tenants in her house to generate the income she needs until the closing. I am concerned that the condition of the house I am buying will be altered by the tenants (a couple with 4 small children). The agent has also said that if I do not like it I can back out. I think she is not behaving ethically. The real estate agent I am using to list the rental property said since there was no “tenant rights” stipulation in the purchase agreement that the agent cannot rent until closing. Can we prevent her from renting the property? Thank you for advice.
The best way to keep her from putting tenants in there is to close escrow and take possession.
Look at it this way. Someone makes an offer on your rental property, but says that they have to wait until they get promoted at work before they can close! Ridiculous.
She should know better than to agree to a contingency like this with no end date. If she did, this may be her only path to not incurring holding costs–indefinately.
If you still want the home, in it’s current condition, you may consider moving on it quickly.
As I see it, the seller is only obligated to have the property in essential the same condition as when you agreed to purchase. This means physical condition as well as not being subject to any leases,e tc at closing. In the mean time, she is really free (IMHO) to do what she wants with the house…be it live there, leave it empty, etc. Remember she still owns the property and has 100% control, you just have a contract to purchase. You have no control over the disposition of the property until you complete the purchase.
On the flip side, the seller should not have engaged in a contingent contract if she needs to sell quickly.