Wholesaler keeping deposit

[Michael Junior]

I'll make this short..

We were shown a property, our reno numbers came in around $160,000

So we called the wholesaler and said were all set. They call us back and say hey we have a guy that can do it for $120,000 and we will be happy to provide you with his info. Which technically would make the deal work. So we put our faith in them and said okay lets do it. Signed the assignment contract and wired the $35,000 emd. Here we are days later, closing 10/12 and they have yet to provide us with the info for the GC and to better sweeten the pot, our hard money lender came back with a valuation almost $100k less than our est ARV which screws up our financing.

Long story short we are backing out based off mis-information from these guys. And they want to keep the deposit. I know its a dog eat dog world. and we are responsible for making our own decisions. But ultimately without them saying they have a guy for us, which made the deal work. We would have never entered into this deal. What are the odds we fight this and get our money back ? Kicker they are locking it up with another buyer today, so they are making their money either way. 

Any insight will be helpful. 

And again before I get bashed on here, I know this is my screw up. 

[Steve Meyers]

My guess is the deposit is probably non-refundable, most wholesalers have it that way so they get paid regardless if you close on the deal or not so they get paid.  Take it as a learning lesson, you should of gotten a SOW (scope of work) from their referred GC contact before agreeing to proceed and I would always run the numbers with your lender ahead of time.  Did your HM lender need to do an appraisal on the place?  Most don't need to if the numbers make sense.  Sorry you're going through this, but take it as a learning lesson.  You can try and go after them but chances are you'll waste more time and money.