I recently entered into a purchase agreement with a FSBO in Alaska. In their inexperience and arrogance, they made a huge mistake on the purchase agreement in my favor and an attorney told me that our agreement wasn't binding. However, if we (Buyer & Seller) had real estate agents it would be legal and binding. I was told that due to the sellers inexperience, they're mistakes are easily forgiven! This is a bad deal--I spent a lot of time and energy finding this home and securing a good interest rate to have it go down the drain just because the Seller is incompetent and has no business attempting to sell their own home to serious buyers!

Buyers beware, and sellers get an agent!

Very good point. It is unfortunate you had to experience that.

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Susan Vanderburgh
Realtor (California)
super_property_gal@hotmail.com
http://www.reliancerealtygroup.com

Something is not correct here....

Just having agents involved in the sale would not make a defective agreement legal... unless both parties agreed to it, then it could be consummated.

Something OTHER than not having an agent involved would have to be wrong for an agreement to be determined defective by an attorney. Information is missing here, that can not be the only reason.

Hopefully, if agents had been involved any errors would have been discovered and corrected, but they can't make pure what is not, just by their participation.

Yep, I mentioned that there were mistakes and that's exactly what the attorney meant when he said "if realtors were involved"...the mistakes would have been caught. And in my case it was true because the seller wrote down the wrong purchase price on the agreement (twice). It was off by $100,000. So, yes, this never would have happened with realtors BECAUSE the Buyer would have wrote the offer in the first place opposed to the seller. (By the way, I tried to write the offer, but the seller was completely in control and said she wouldn't accept anything below her asking price, I agreed and off she went in full confidence writing up a screwed up offer. Did I see it, nope, I didn't catch it either.)

It's very obvious that we didn't know what we were doing. Even so, as a buyer I made an offer to pay the full price, and I'm the one who caught the mistake and contacted her to fix it because obviously my lender couldn't lend on correct price when the purchase agreement states otherwise. The seller freaked out and didn't understand that I couldn't just "white out the mistake and fix it on my end!" as suggested, so she freaked out and the deal fell apart.

FSBO might may [or may not] do their homework and have the time to handle selling their home, but when problems arise can they handle them objectively? One never knows....

So...the attorney said, if this purchase price was signed with realtors present then, yes, it would be binding. As it was, the seller couldn't be held accountable to the purchase agreement because the price was an obvious mistake, even if I wanted to present a counter w/the correct price to fix the problem, which I did but she wouldn't sign anything that she didn't create. Very wierd....

Do I agree...nope, that's why I went to an attorney! In fact, I asked for advice about this a month ago, but didn't get a reply.

If you are looking for a way to legally force the contract to become binding, there does not appear to be anything but a verbal contract. That's why Realtors are paid the big bucks--we are compensated for a lot of the behind-the-scenes work that the public is not necessarily aware of. Confirm with the attorney that there is simply nothing you can do to enforce the sale and move on to a better home.

Again, it is quite unfortunate that you had to experience this. But fortunate that your generosity enables you to share this with us.

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Susan Vanderburgh
Realtor (California)
super_property_gal@hotmail.com www.reliancerealtygroup.com

Real estate and financial services to buyers and sellers

[This message has been edited by super_property_gal (edited 07-02-2004).]

Yes, at first, I was looking for a way to hold the sellers to their original deal, which was in writing. At this point, I have moved on with a wealth of knowledge and experience to another home. This time, with a realtor because they are definately worth their wage! (Even if you've experienced a bad deal with a realtor, nothing can compare to a bad deal without a realtor!)

I only wish that I'd found this site before I began this long, painful and costly journey!