Need help with possibly fishy purchase offer
Hi all! I am currently in the process of doing my first home sale and am in need of some advice about an offer that seems slightly fishy. Hopefully someone with experience can help out here.
So I got a full-price offer from a real estate agent, most likely someone my own agent knows personally, on the very first day my home was listed. Of course, I said I'd sign it. Then I read it, and, well...
The first thing I noticed is that the offer is assignable (the buyer is listed as the name of the agent "or nominee"). Apparently the agent thinks they're going to be able to find a buyer for more than the price of their offer and pocket the difference. I don't have a big problem with this as I don't think my home is underpriced. My concern is that the agent will tie my home up for the entire escrow period, not find a buyer to assign the offer to, and then somehow weasel out of paying the earnest money deposit (which is sizable). There's no financing contingency, but there's an inspection contingency, so I definitely see the possibility of weasel-y behavior.
So, do you guys think this is fishy? And how do you bulletproof an offer so they can't weasel out of paying the earnest money if they can't go through with the deal? Any feedback much appreciated.