How Can a Seller Terminate the Contract?
In today’s crazy market, when there is a
shortage of listings and as soon as a house comes to the market
there would be several offers next day with full price or higher,
Sellers want more and more and don’t negotiate or compromise. This
has caused some unusual problems that we don’t have a pre-defined
solution or even approved form to handle it. Among those is an
example show below:
The Seller has accepted an offer and executed
the contract. But, due to high demand and market shifts toward
Sellers, he thinks he could get much higher for his house and wants
to terminate the contract, of course legally and ending up with no
penalty.
But, at least for state of Texas, there is no
promulgated form by the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) or by
Texas Association of REALTORS®
that takes care of this situation. I have not seen any form or case
that allows Seller to terminate contract, without Buyer agreement,
unless Buyer cannot close on the specific agreed date or the lender
does not approve the property.
That is interesting since I can come up with 17
different scenarios that Buyer can terminate the contract legally
without any consequences and gets his earnest money back, but there
is no single case that Sellers (Builders are exception) can
terminate the contract legally without consequences.
Problem:
Seller has changed his mind and wants to get out of the contract
without any consequences, But Buyer wants to go head with the
contract and doesn’t want to terminate the contract.
If you have seen similar situation and have a
proposed solution, please share it with us.
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