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> You put a bid om[sic] a home and then try walk away usually means you get sued. Usually the other way around. You can’t make someone buy but you can make som
by teeray 4y ago
> You put a bid om[sic] a home and then try walk away usually means you get sued.
Usually the other way around. You can’t make someone buy but you can make someone sell. The buyer may lose their downpayment if they walk, but the seller can be sued to achieve “specific performance”, forcing them to sell if they get cold feet.
- XorNot 4y agoI mean, that's not nothing though. Then downpayment on my house was 10%, and that is not a small amount of money to forfeit for a capital asset like that given a house is usually an "everything you have" investment these days.
- topkai22 4y agoI think the meant the earnest money, not the down payment. The earnest money is lot less- I did like $3000 on a $700k purchase. The down payment is between you and your financing, the earnest money is what you put on the table for the offer to the seller. Even then, you can generally get the earnest money back if appraisal or inspection fails.
- teeray 4y agoI did say “may.” Usually what happens is the buyer sues and files lis pendens on the property. The seller then no longer has a clean title, and must complete the litigation in order to sell their property to someone else (months pass in this process). The seller usually wants to sell their house more than fight to keep the money of a recalcitrant buyer, and thus returns the downpayment to the buyer in full.