So this happened... 1st house flipping MISTAKE!

[John Mahoney]

I bought a home with the intention to flip it. Prior to getting to closing, a real estate investor (buyer) came along and offered me 20% more than I was going to close for the next day, only catch... needed 1 month to close.

He put down $1k (which I was told by the agent that was customary in NJ with an offer) and the time started to tick. 

As we got within 1 week of closing and not hearing anything from the buyers agent or my attorney, I asked for an update. 

The buyer had just informed his agent the night before that he was not able to complete the transaction and would be pulling out of the deal!

I asked my attorney what recourse if any we had since we paid for property taxes for the month and lost time for what I would have begun day 1 after closing, and was told that if we were going to attempt to hold the $1k he had put down, the buyer could end up contesting and the legal fees would not be worth it. 

So, demo has begun and lesson learned. If a buyer is serious, I will be requiring at least 10% down payment. 

Had this happened to anyone?  Talk about hitting your head against a wall and learning! 

[Jay Hinrichs]

deals die all the time... bigger EM up front and make it clearly non refundable and released to you upon mutual acceptance.. that's the only way I do these deals if its something I am going to work on.

So in this instance put up 5k and release it to me.. that way we don't fight over it when you don't close.

@Seth Williams  do you guys release EM like we do here in our market.. very common. between professional sellers. NOT common with mom and pop though.