Expert: Sue Bernstein - 6/12/2007

Question
I'll try to make this long story short... I recently got married and wanted to have our house ready before the wedding. For that, and being our first time shopping for a house, we hired an agent to help us find a house about 6 months before the wedding. Most of the places we looked at we found ourselves, but still needed the agent to go look at it in most cases (we went to a bunch of open-houses without the agent). When we finally found a property that we liked (about 3 months before the wedding), it turned out to be a 'short-sale'. We were very poorly informed of the meaning the implications of it. We have been married for 1 month now and 4 months waiting on this property. It seems that it won't work, it's also about to go to foreclosure.
What are the implications of the seller's bank not approving it? We have a offer deposit of about 3% of the value of the property, will I loose that money? Do I have to pay for any inspections and appraisals done to the place?
If I fire the agent, do I have to pay any fees?

Answer
Dear Ricardo,

I'm sorry to hear that you are having such problems.  Short sales are difficult at best and many never go through.  Many years ago I bought my own house through a short sale but did my best not to show them to clients because of their difficulties.  Unless you signed some sort of contract with your agent you are under no obligation to continue working with that person.  You have to look at the terms of your contract but I would hazard a guess that you should get your full deposit back.  The seller is not able to deliver clear title.  As for the money you put out for appraisals and inspections that is less likely.

Good luck and I hope I answered your questions fully.

Sue Bernstein
www.SueBernstein