They didn’t thoroughly read the contract and missed that they were to pay $4000 in closing costs for the buyer. They didn’t counter our initial offer. Earnest deposit was held by my broker. The sellers didn’t consider or understand what their closing costs would be and what their Net Equity would be because they didn’t have an agent to run those estimates for them.

When they got a copy of the HUD the day before closing, they learned they had to bring over $5500 to closing. Since they had stupidly closed on another home the week before, they had to contact relatives to come up with the money to avoid owning two homes. They brought the $5500 to closing in CASH bills!

My buyers got a great deal because they used a Realtor®. The sellers lost big time because they decided to be unrepresented.

Gee I don’t think “Bob” is at all confused about a real estate agent being an attorney. I bet he’s come to know the difference over the years.

I don’t think “Bob” portrayed the seller to be anything. He says very little about the seller at all. I certainly read no defamation of the sellers character or FSBO’s in general.

I don’t think “Bob” could have all the facts from what Tonya asked. Tonya thinks the seller has the money. Tonya may be totally mistaken. There could be more to the story. “Bob” expressed an opinion, it’s his job as a real estate columnist.

My point was in my market (this is a blog about Columbus) the check would be cashed, but the contract tells a Tonya (the buyer) where the money is, what the sellers rights are, what the buyers rights are.

Our earnest money locally is a lot less than 5% typically so it is not going to go far in making repairs… but I made that point in the entry

Your counsel to sellers is certainly interesting (even if you are NOT an attorney) and are just advertising properties rather than doing things that take a real estate license…. but Tonya is a buyer. Tonya is a buyer seeking info from Bob Bruss.

At least in my market she could have a real estate agent looking out for her interest, she could have an attorney, she could have an inspection. Tonya thinks the sellers are using her funds to make repairs to the property, so she must have had a home inspection or there were repairs requested in her purchase contract.

Tonya has choices. She’s made choices. No one defamed the unnamed seller. It’s really not about the seller, it’s about the buyer and her perception of what is going on in HER transaction

Sorry I had to remove your link. It made your comment look so much like comment spam it ended up in my spam filter.

In our area, any deposit taken at the point of an offer or when the purchase and sales contract is signed, (the amount is more like 5% or more), is generally held by either the seller’s attorney in escrow and is perfectly NORMAL. The comment, ”Your situation shows another danger of buying direct from a home seller without the benefit of an experienced real estate agent to protect both parties” has little relevancy. A real estate agent is not an attorney.

I cannot speak for all private home sellers, but I can say that most of our advertisers (home sellers) follow our recommendations of: 1) contact an experienced real estate attorney as soon as you know you will be selling by owner, 2) have your home appraised by a Massachusetts licensed residential real estate appraiser in order to know its true market value which will help you negotiate from a position of strength and will more likely be approved for financing, and 3) consider having a pre-home inspection performed by a Massachusetts licensed home inspector if there are structural issues that may come up later.

Call them FSBOs or “unrepresented sellers”, the fact of the matter is that consumers are finally beginning to understand that the real estate transaction has been made far more complicated than it is.