Urgent! Help me back out a contract!
I have put myself in a bad situation. I will need your advise, especially from the legal side. I will talk to real estate lawyers as well but that will be Monday.
I am under contract with one house in Georgia. Here is my stupid part. I waived the due diligent and the inspection as the seller provided an inspection report to me. I still have the appraisal contingency. The reason why I did that is because all the photos and videos the seller agent provided looked so awesome and I have bought many sight unseen and have not had problems before. Considering this hot market, I don't really believe I have the chance to go there, check it and offer. So I offered like that and didn't think there will be big issue as usual.
The seller accepted the offer and the house went to binding immediately since there is no due diligent or inspection.
The binding is a few days ago, say x date. Earnest money should be paid by me within x plus 3 days. During this time, I visted the house physically and decided that I am not going to pursue the house due to various reasons after seeing the house in person. And that is not something seller can do to change, meaning even if the seller is willing to lower on the price, I still don't want the house any more. hence, I didn't pay the earnest money within x plus 3 days. Then I stupidlly assumed that the contract will be invalid as I had not paid the earnest money.
A couple of days later, the seller agent sent messages to me and told me that I could not backed out after binding. The only way is the appraisal not to the purchase price. Now I realized how seriously this could turn to. As my understanding for that market, the appraisal could be up to the purchase price and of course it cold be below. Currently Zillow's estimate is high than the purchase price. However I understand that It is totally unknown at this moment until the actual appraisal report. However I definitely don't want to risk for that since I 100% don't want to purchase the house now.
I am not sure what options have left for me now. I could just pay the appraisal to see now much the house could reach, maybe? I try to avoid going to appraisal step as it is a big rick. If it appraised higher, I will have to perform the contract which is not what I want.
I am not sure about the seller's attitude now. Seems like they have not canceled the contract yet. They have 7 days to cancel the contract if earnest money is not received per the contract. Should I offer them the earnest money and request them to cancel the contract? I have no problem paying the earnest money but my worry is that, if I offered the earnest money, they may continue on the contract.
Or I could just not applying for the loan and delay the whole process, using that to let seller cancel? I know the seller is not living on the house and they need to sell quickly. I don't think they will have problem selling to someone else for the same price or higher. But since it was under contract with contingency for me and now back to market, that may affect the house value in some cases but not necessarily. It is a hot area and selling is not a problem.
Lessens learned in a hard way this time. If you need to say I am stupid, I get it and it is totally due to my stupidity. However the most urgent thing is how to get me out of the contract. If you could share your experience or opinions or recommend any experienced real estate lawyer in Georgia, that will be highly appreciated!