Cancelling a Contract?
He is NOT my client, just a family member. I'll call him John. John and his (pregnant) wife are downsizing (from Belton, MO) and were trying to buy a smaller home in Kansas City, Kansas. They are set to close on January 9th and they are through almost all contingencies (selling their current home, inspection/resolution). I believe the last contingency would be financing, but unless the house doesn’t appraise for at least the purchase price, this contingency will be satisfied as well.
Long story short, they are now trying to get out of this house. A couple days ago John was out at the new house, and briefly parked in the neighbor’s driveway. John says at that point the neighbor came out and immediately pulled a gun on him. They are starting a family and are now very scared about this neighborhood and their immediate neighbors. Bottom line, I think they just now realized that this is the kind of neighborhood where you need to be a gun owner – and they are NOT gun people, so you can imagine how scary this was for them.
What options, if any, does John have at this point? His realtor immediately reached out to the seller’s agent, who responded and said that the sellers are not willing to sign off on a cancellation. I guess the sellers have already fixed the roof of the home, which John and his wife had requested (I believe the roof cost was $5k).
Purchase Price: $99,500
Down payment: $18,900
Earnest money: $1,000
Financing: $79,600
Are there any options for John at this point? He’s willing to lose the earnest money and probably even the cost of repairs. Any ideas or insight you might have would be extremely helpful.