Thank you for reading my post. After having to deal with three hurricanes last year, my husband and I made the decision to sell our second home which is in Florida. We have owned it for 12 years. We also made the decision to sell it ourselves for a number of reasons. Chiefly, because the house is in a dense area with all kinds of vehicle and pedestrian traffic we did not want a sign in the yard and endless knocks on the door and people milling around on our property. Some folks just don't comprehend "By appointment only". Second, we have probably the nosiest neighbor in the world, with nothing better to do than eavesdrop sneakily and gossip loudly, usually grossly twisting fact into fiction. No discretion there whatsoever. Plus he would pepper us constantly with questions and we are pretty private. The market seems to be very good here and we went the route of placing a classified ad with description and phone number, but no address. About a week later, a woman (Mary) called to inquire about the location and wanted to know if she could come by to see it as she was on her way home from work. It was nearly dark and really raining and my husband gave her the address so she could ride by, but asked that she come back the following day for an appointment to see the inside. She agreed. Ten minutes later, there's a loud knock at the door and a woman (Jane)said she was Mary's partner and could she just come in and take a look. She was already halfway in the door before my husband could respond. We were both a little perturbed. There was a man with her whom she introduced as her handyman. They walked straight through the house, peeking into the bedrooms and bath and then went out the back door. It was about full dark by now and still raining. They came back in and after gushing about how much she liked it, she said she was going to call Mary to discuss it. After a couple of calls back and forth, she and my husband agreed verbally on a purchase price. She said she was a realtor and that she had a standard FARBAR 'AS IS' contract we could use and that she would draw it up and send Mary over with it and a pre-approval letter and a check for earnest money later that evening. Mary showed up with the check, but said Jane would be over in the morning with the contract. The impression both of us got was that they were buying the house together, but that Mary was going to live in it. The next morning Jane arrives with the contract and alot of hubbub. They already own 7 other investment properties in town and this one will be great, they'll rent it out, etc...so now we know it's not for Mary to live in. Based on the enthusiasm shown by both for the property, we felt pretty confident that we were dealing with two saavy people who knew what they were doing and what they wanted. The contract was signed and I made copies, but she managed to leave without us getting to see the pre-approval letter. The contract was signed on 3/18 and stipulated they had until 3/25 to complete the inspection. On the contract Jane entered a zero in the space regarding cancelling the contract if estimated cost of repairs exceeded that amount. She said she didn't care if the inspection turned up anything, they were buying it regardless. The closing was set on or before 4/18.

We took the check and contract to our attorney who deposited the check into escrow. I reserved a moving truck and started packing because we were planning to return to our other home the following weekend. The next day, Jane and Mary drove up to the back of the property. My husband happened to be outside and they said Mary hadn't gotten to see the backyard in daylight so could they take a look around, the whole time going on and on about how much they loved it and how excited they were. On March 22, we called the attorney to see if they'd been contacted by the mortgage company. They had not. I e-mailed Jane with alternate phone numbers she could reach us at because we were going to be out of town for a couple of days. She did not respond. On 3/23, the attorney still had heard nothing. That evening my husband called Jane and got her voice mail and left her a message. She did not return his call. My intuition said this wasn't looking good. We got back the afternoon of 3/24 and sure enough there was a message on the ans. machine from Mary saying that she was sorry, she was going to have to back out of the deal, that the numbers just weren't working, she and the lender just couldn't get the numbers to work. Now we were confused again because both of them had signed the contract but it sounded like it was Mary's deal. Finley called Jane and said, "You told us
you had a pre-approval letter from your mortgage company." And she said, "I do! I'm approved for up to $500,000. We can't buy your house at the agreend upon price because the numbers don't work. The amount of rent we could get isn't going to cover the amount it's going to cost." And my husband said it didn't matter to us what they did with the house after they bought it and that that was not a valid reason to cancel the contract. She said, "Oh it happens all the time." Then she informed my husband that the numbers didn't work at the agreed upon price but that they would work at a much lower price. Very flippant. My husband then called the attorney who said the buyers still had one more day to conduct an inspection of the property and to wait a couple of days to see if they were going to do so. They never did. However, they did fax a handwritten letter to our attorney asking for the return of their earnest money, but not stating a reason for cancelling. We were so disappointed at having to start all over. I had to cancel the truck, change our plans back home, and place another ad and start showing the house again. Our attorney responded to their fax explaining that he was not authorized to release the deposit because they had no valid reason for cancelling, and also that no inspection was conducted. We got a message the next day from Mary stating that that was a huge amount of money to her, she couldn't believe we had involved an attorney, this had never happened before, etc...singing a very different tune now that it's her that is being inconvenienced.

We do have a new contract on the house. On Monday 4/4 I got a call inquiring if the house was still available and I suspected it was someone calling on behalf of Jane and Mary. Sure enough, on 4/5 our attorney called to say she had received a fax from an attorney representing the two of them. It was a letter to our attorney, a letter to us, and a form from a mortgage company indicating they both had been denied a loan due to excessive obligations. Both letters are full of untruths. The most significant is the statement that Jane conducted an inspection of the property with her 'contractor' on the day the contract was executed March 18, 2005, and that the inspection covered the interior and exterior of the property. Wrong, they walked through the house on March 17, the rainy night before the contract was signed. We never received anything in writing regarding the results of an inspection. Then she went on to dispute our allegations that the reason they were cancelling was because of the anticipated rental income-like we made that up. Those were Jane's words. The credit denial was dated 3/29. After Jane bragged about being approved for up to half a million dollars, I think it's a bit odd that a few days later she's being denied a loan for half of 130,000.

Here's our beef with all of this. This Jane is a licensed Florida realtor. And she is conducting herself in a manner that is anything but professional. We don't know if this is a tricky way she's cooked up to try to buy property on the cheap from unsuspecting or naive fsbo's. The day she brought the contracts, she said she really liked buying from realtors better than fsbo's because she got half a commission. Well, her commission here was in the reduced purchase price. She also said that she never read those classified, that Mary did and that in fact she had another one she wanted her to go see. So they could have found another one they liked better after contracting to buy ours. I've read your responses to other plights of fsbo's so I know what to expect-live and learn-and get a real estate agent. I'd just like to get the opinion of some professionals out there. Meaning agents. Would you give back the earnest money if you'd been jerked around like we have? I know we'll end up having to give most of it back because it would cost more to litigate it. But if anybody who undertook to read this is still awake, I'd love to hear any feedback. Thanks, it feels better to have gotten that off my chest.

justme, at some point you decided on For sale by owner, welcome to the real world.

thanks. I feel so much better.

Justme,

Nothing that any agent here could say would make you feel better about what happened to you and your husband.
It is a tough business to be in but there are great agents out there. Good luck with your new contract.

I'm not sure how the FARBAR Agreement of Sale is written, but if you had used a standard NAR Agreement of Sale contract I know you'd be entitled to keep the earnest money deposit. If you haven't already, take the contract you signed over to your lawyer and let him take a look at it.

Thank you, Dana, for your kind reply. I just have one more thing to add here. I realize that I posted a very long and probably rambling topic. However, I think the issue has less to do with us being dumb enough to try to sell our home ourselves and more to do with the character, or lack of, of the realtor who came in like gang-busters and then backed out with a myriad of false reasons. I don't have a real estate license, but I did locate and read the Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice of the NAR. I read the whole thing. Standards of Practice 1-1 states that: "Realtors, when acting as principals in a real estate transaction, remain obligated by the duties imposed by the Code of Ethics."

You are forgetting one thing. All real estate agents are not Realtors. If she is indeed a Realtor file a complaint on her with the local boards ethics committee. Is your attorney the family attorney or a Real Estate Attorney and what does he say regarding the situation.

good luck

justme- What happened to you is one of the things that could happen on a FSBO. And one of the things that can be avoided if you hired a good agent.

Can you sell your own house? Sure. But can you safely and effectively do it without knowing the business? Well, the answer is simply "No".

Would you rather hire an agent and get top dollar for your home or would you rather accept a low ball offer and still represent yourself?

If I was your agent and something like this happened, I would have made you money (deposit) even before you pay me a dime.

i know here in my area, there is a financing clause for so many days. check into that to see how many days it was for, and if it is above the days that they sent the fax to your attorney, then the earnest money must be released. otherwise, it isy ours.

Thank you to everyone for your advice and input. Of course I now wish we'd hired a good agent to list our home. Unfortunately, we only thought of the perceived annoyances I mentioned, not what could actually happen without good representation. We have definitely learned. No, it's not a family attorney, but rather a law firm that handles real estate. They've seen it all as I'm sure you have and I don't think they see this as worth wasting their time and our money on. As to whether or not Jane is a realtor vs. agent, she wrote next to her name on the Buyer line of the contract "Licensed Florida Realtor". Her partner will get her deposit back. I've felt badly for her all along that it was her money and not the agent's. But agent may be dealing with a complaint filed with the local board. Thanks again.

Just Me,
There is a Distinction between Realtor & licensed Real Estate Agent. You actually may be able to file 2 complaints on this Scam Artist, 1 with the State that licenses & 1 with the Board, if she is indeed a REALTOR. I am amazed at this ordeal.

I have read that most people that choose the FSBO route have had previous BAD experiences with a Listing Agent...they don't like us & don't feel they need us...& sometimes it is money, which you failed to mention.

We do provide a lot of service for our Money, Take the Heat & stress of making things Work, & often giving excellent advice. Most People not in the business think all this is easy, & we get paid too much.

Now you KNOW.

I would file a complaint with the local board. Next time, consult a lawyer before you do anything on your own.

Just my two cents, but I think people need to back off with the "You should've hired a agent to sell your house". It's getting old, and as they even said in their first post:

"I've read your responses to other plights of fsbo's so I know what to expect-live and learn-and get a real estate agent."

They know, they've learned. Back off or give this poor people some advice if you have anything to add. Everyone makes mistakes, let it be at that, okay?