On 3/8/06 I had an offer accepted that the listing agent claimed to have verified with the mortgage holder as it was a short sell. I have a clean contract with no contigencies. I go through home inspections, appraisials, underwriting. All along being told that everything is set to close on 4/24/06. 4/4/06 I call the listing agent to get name of title company for my lender. First I am given the run around. Then I demand a contact for the title company through my agent. We are 20 days away from closing, a month has passed since the contract was signed, and now we are told that the bank has not verified the short sale that they are still trying to get the bank to approve. Only for the past 30 days we wre told everything was ok and approved. The listing agent is not only a broker but the owner of the company! If I had not pushed she would still have us believe that everything was ok. How can she just get away with that? Can't she be disciplined? Who reimburses me for the home inspection, termite inspection, my lenders appraiser and loan processing? Is there anything I can do?

Well, actually you did have contingencies.
If it was subject to: a home inspection & appraisal; those are contingencies but in this case that point is moot.

Just because the Broker verified with the Seller that it was a short sale and the Seller accepted your offer doesn’t make it a sale. Because it is a “Short Sale” and the bank is not going to receive the full amount that the Seller owes them, the sale has to be approved by the Seller’s finance company. Your agent should not have allowed any inspections to be completed or paid for including the appraisal UNTIL they received a written acceptance of the sale and terms from the Seller’s finance company. The listing agent and Seller should have made sure in a counter offer back to you spelling those terms out. Now you have spent all that money on a property that may not close when I believe your understanding was that everything was approved. You should have not spent any money without written approval FROM THE SELLER’S FINANCE COMPANY. The way I see it, if the transaction does not close, the listing agent AND your agent needs to reimburse your expenses. Evidently, they did not and do not know the process and in my opinion they should!

(My opinion only, I am in no way giving legal advice, if you are seeking legal advice you need to seek the advice of a Licensed Attorney).

When we sent offer the listing agent asked for a couple of extra days because she needed to get an ok from the bank as it was a short sale. She than called my agent said everything was ok and sent over the signed contract.

Well it fell through and everyone is telling me that is the way things go. Which fine but I tried to explain that I am out money on a contract thet they all knew was bad. So how should I be the one that has to pay for the mistake made by so called proffessionals? I had a contract adn was told everything was ok so I proceeded like I was suppose to per the contract. So now I am out $500 in appraisals and home inspections and they still have not released my earnest money.

If you had an accepted contract signed by the sellers, then ask for reimbursement from the sellers. They may not, but it doesn't hurt to ask.