Offer Accepted on a property. Now What?

Question

i put in an offer for a fixer upper and it was accepted verbally by the seller. She had it listed with a realtor though. Can I still assign the house to someoneelse? Here are the numbers. House was listed for 26k. It's a 2bd 1 bth 720sqft place. The whole house needs some cosmetic work and replaced windows. A pipe froze in the basement when the thermostat battery died and now water is frozen on the wall and floor.. It has a brand new hvac system in it. She accepted my 19k offer. Area comps show houses in the same shape sold for 30-40k fully updated places have sold for 50-65k. Taxes on the property is $300 / year. Rents for a similar place avg 550/month .

Ariel Echevarria · Answer

OK! Thanks for the responses everyone. I thought I would update you all on what happened with this place. Well, I was able to get the house under contract for 19k. The contract was contingent on finding an investor and an inspection. I had 30 days to find a cash buyer. I was able to find many local buyers but none that were interested in purchasing. I hadn't even given these people the info on the house. I just said I had a property. So, I kept moving along. I get a text from the seller asking what was going on with the house and if I had an investor yet. Being my honest self I said no I do not have an investor yet. I am still looking. She had another property that was sold to another investor. I asked if she might know who it was. She said no. So i spent some time trying to find it in the public records. Well it took a while for the county to update their info. The next day I get a call from her realtor to see if we could meet. So I went by the office and he said his boss and the seller wanted to nullify the contract and give me my earnest back since i didn't have an investor yet. Keep in mind i've only had the contract for a week. Before all of this i would get at least 5 calls a day from the realtor. I work full time so getting calls from someone that many times a day is not good. I would call back on my breaks and lunch. Each time it was the realtor asking if I found an investor yet. So, I'm getting called almost every day 5 times a day for a week. Getting harassed by the realtor. If I wasn't getting calls or texts from him I was getting them from the seller. So, needless to say i gladly took my earnest money back and said good luck. Lesson learned...don't deal with crappy realtors. From now on i'll only look at a place that is truly for sale by owner and not a realty office. One the nice side I have another seller lined up. So, i'll be working on getting this one under contract. This time no realtor involved.

Justin E. · Answer

Getting it under contract is the next step. Remember to have your escape clauses.

Ceasar Blackman · Answer

if its listed with a realtor you will have to pay realtor commission on that if i am not mistaken so you will have to figure that into your numbers.

Jason Eyerly · Answer

You should be able to find his mailing info through the tax info on the county assessors website, or the deed change on the count recorders website. As far as the non assignment clause, you could always use a transactional lender.

Arktavious Sally · Answer

@Ariel Echevarria

When making offers on listed properties and getting them accepted you're going to play by the Realtors rules..

Most likely your states realtor's contract will have a non assignable clause. But there are ways around non assignable contracts.

Liam Goble · Answer

@Ariel Echevarria The owner of the property next door should be listed in the public records.  Every time I've purchased a property, I've used a Realtor.  Now, if I see a run down property, or just another property I want to buy, I'll ask my Realtor to do some research on the property/person.  Usually I can find a phone number or address of the owner.  If a phone number, I'll call and explain what I want.  If an address, I'll send a letter explaining what I want and ask if they would like to meet.

In my opinion, I know Realtors do cost money, but when you find a good one (or a few good ones), they can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you, just don't push too hard...it's a fine line.

Good luck w/ this one.

Ariel Echevarria · Answer

makes sense. I may have a investor who actually bought the same sellers property right next door. If I can find out who he is I'll approach him. He was interested in the one I got the offer accepted but the seller didn't know who it was. I think I can get two grand out of the deal if he's willing to buy it for 21k

Jason Eyerly · Answer

The earnest money is up to you. If you think you will be able to assign the contract to an investor before your contract time is up, then I'd absolutely hand out the $500. However, if you fail to turn this contract around you'll be out $500. Unless you use a contingency in your contract, like continent upon inspection or estimated rehab costs being below X amount. But if you always use a contingency to back out eventually nobody will want to do business with you.

Ariel Echevarria · Answer

so I would go undercontract through the realty people? They want $500 earnest money when I contract the property.

Offer Accepted on a property. Now What?

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