Expert: Jessica Bryan - 10/14/2010

Question
My dad had been living alone in a house in Arcata, CA for 30 years.  One year ago he had to move him out for good due to bad health.  His neighbors got him to agree to give them first right of refusal when he would put the house up for sale. I feel they manipulated him with their friendship of this isolated elderly man that my dad was. The neighbors of my dad are after us now to give them first right of refusal.  We don't want to sell the house to them.  Any suggestions for keeping the peace, while we wait until the market value is better for selling?  We have some potential renters that want to rent the house asap for a year or more.
 I looked at Zillow to get a market value history of our house.  The market value is going back up again, and we'd like to monitor it to a time when we think we can get a good sale on the house.  Lowest value in Sept was $366K.  Highest value was in February at $535K.  It made a steady decline until June at $500K when it started it's decent to $366K.  With renters, we thought we'd wait to see if the market can get back up to around $500K and then sell.  

Answer
Dear Carl;
My first question to you is: Was anything put into writing guaranteeing the neighbors first right of refusal?  If there is no contract between the two parties that proves that your father did this then you are free to sell the home to whomever.

If there is a written agreement then you can certainly take it to an attorney to discuss your options and your suspicions that he was 'coerced' into doing so.

If you have no recourse but to offer the home to the neighbors first, then you are free to sell it at a time when you think that the market is better for you to sell.  You may also ask any price you wish.  (I assume that you have power of attorney for your father.) Just because the neighbor may (or may not) have first right of refusal doesn't mean that they will like the asking price and go forward with the purchase.  If they turn it down, then get their refusal in writing to prove that they relinquished first right.

Finally, I have one last suggestion: Consult a real estate broker to get an idea of the market and real values.
Best wishes,
Jessica Bryan