Hey there, I recently entered into a real estate transaction with what I thought to be a motivated seller. We agreed on a price and even entered into attorney review, but this person refused to sign the contract hesitating and finding any and everything possible to change on the contract. They never wanted to sign always finding some excuse. Finally they called and told me someone offered more money and they changed the contract to reflect the new price and then signed it. I declined to buy the house of course, the diff. was about 10,000 (original $145,000 to 155,000), I expressed my disgust with her wasting my time and conducting bad buisness with me. My question is how can I / could have prevented this from happening now and in the future? Also what could I have done to hold this lady to the original contract although she did not sign? Is a binder enough to hold them to the original offer price and from negotiating with anyone else?
Please respond, Thank You, Howard the youngone
I’m new and all, and haven’t done a deal yet, but I think I would have walked away from it. If she didn’t want to sign and accept the offer, I would taken it away. (old sales trick) 
1) She would have called you back and resumed negotiations, or 2) She wouldn’t have called back and you move on to the next one and save yourself all this heartache.
Just my opinion. Good Luck.
Jessie R. Van, Jr.
Hi -
You thought you found a motivated seller – she wasn’t.
You thought you had a deal – you didn’t.
You even wanted to believe you were in control – you never were.
Jessie may be new at this, but he has the right idea. If the seller isn’t motivated enough to sign the contract – then chances are they aren’t motivated enough for you to profit from the deal.
I once had a buyer fax me (through his attorney) a list of 57 things he wanted “addressed” before he would enter into a purchase agreement with me. I told him I wouldn’t “address” even a single point without some serious money on the table up front. He refused – I walked. One week later, the property sold for far more than his original offer. And wonder of wonders, the new buyers didn’t care anything about the “57 points”.
Here’s the deal: Stay in control. They should HAVE to sell, but you DO NOT have to buy. Get it?
Jessie is correct. It may be an old sales trick, but I still take deals off the table when things don’t suit me; you should too.
As he said, they either call back or they don’t. Either way, you simply move on to the next deal with as little of your time invested as possible.
Learn the meaning of the word – “next”.
Take care,
Eric C
PS - one more thing about those folks with the 57 points: people like these are pains and are rarely ever satisfied. They are also the type who will sue you years later because of some " undisclosed" condition. Just pass on them; I don’t care how badly you think you need the deal. It’s simply not worth it.
I don’t let anyone else run my business. You shouldn’t either.
Howdy Howard:
Great advice from both Jessie and Eric. Do you automatically get attorneys involved in the contract negotiations or was it the seller who insisted on this. Attorneys are great but they tend to kill a lot of deals too and may have told seller to get more for the house. Sellers always want more for the house than they are offered even you do too. It is not her fault that she wanted more than you first offered. There may have been nothing you could have done. You can not make them sell and you can not hold them to the offer you made even if she accepted verbally. She just did not need to sell bad enough. Like Eric said move on to the NEXT deal.
Thanks guys I appreciate the advice. However I did move on and contacted another seller today. Everyday is a learning experience, but I am getting it. To answer Ted’s question, She got the lawyer involved, my lawyer just looked over the initial contract for me. Needlessto say I have know grasped the meaning of the word next, and will be more stern with my offers. Most of all I’m having lots of fun doing this hopefully I’ll land my first pretty soon. I will keep y’all posted.
Thanks a lot, Howard
somthing that could have prevented you from wasting your time was by putting a certain time period (say like 24hrs) in which the seller had to accept the contract in the contract itself.
Thank you, I will use that when I go to my next deal.
On the bottom of my offer I have a spot that is preprinted onto the form that reads:
This offer will expire unless signed acceptance is faxed to:
XXX XXX XXXX on or before:
Sept XX, 2004 at 4:00 PM
Thank you, as well Chris F1