short sale

[Kelly R.]

I am working with a realtor to buy a short sale house from a company that has an agreement to sell short sale properties for Bank of America, and am running into some problems before I'm ready to make aoffer. There is a minumum of earnest money of $1000. I ususally put a lot less down. I would'nt mind except in the other deals I've done I have the realtor put a clause in my offer , than upon inspection if something big comes up wrong with the house I can get my money back and not go thru with the deal. On this one I'm not sure I will be able to get the earnest money back. Also there is a clause that you can't flip the house at least for three months, or else you are violating one of their''rules. Do these sound like red flags enough to not make an offer. I'm just a little unsure of this one.

[Joel Owens]

You could put earnest money is given ONLY upon written seller and bank acceptance of the purchase price and terms and a satisfactory inspection.

If you if have to do it their way I would reduce earnest money down to a very small amount. You could also put additional earnest money down after a certain point in the contract where certain conditions are met.

This is not legal advice or agency advice of any kind. You need to consult your broker/agent and legal counsel for options.