Good question; there is no simple yes or no answer to this one. The earnest money submitted with the offer is meant to cement the deal and enable the buyer and seller to enter into a contract for the sale of the house. Most offers and contracts do state that the buyer will forfeit the earnest money if they do not perform as stipulated. In other words, if the buyer backs out, they lose their deposit. However, and it’s a big however, there are a lot of things to consider here.
Nearly all buyers suffer from “buyer’s remorse" at some point after the offer is accepted. The majority of the time this occurs in the first ten days. The important thing to remember is that, in most instances, this is a fleeting stage and in a short period of time they will get over it. The ones that don’t are the problem. In my twenty plus years as a Realtor®, I have experienced this about 2% of the time. In these cases I have found it advisable for the seller to agree to cancel the transaction and move on.
Buyers have many opportunities to get out of a contract in a “legit" manner. Most offers have an inspection contingency clause and if you don’t agree to correct the items discovered (not those you have disclosed prior or those that are obvious with a prudent visual inspection), then they have the right to back out. There are also legally mandated disclosures in most States and if the buyer has not been given them before entering into the contract and acknowledged them, the buyer can cancel when they are presented with the disclosures due to non-disclosure of items affecting the property. Doesn’t matter what the disclosures are, they weren’t given prior to the contract! If the buyer can’t get the loan within the terms stipulated in their offer (maybe interest rates went up) then no deal, as the offer likely had a financing contingency. Any of the contingency clauses not removed in a timely manner can also give them the reason they need. What if the appraisal came in low? What if you don’t live up to your side of the contract or act within the timeframes specified?
So, what to do? If you have used a Realtor® or followed along in the manual “FSBO: You CAN Do It" (fsboyoucandoit.com), if you are a For Sale By Owner, then you would have previously removed almost all the circumstances listed above. What you are left with is a buyer who wants to renege on the deal for no good reason. Maybe they saw another house they liked better. Maybe they were just too scared to complete the sale as it put them way out of their comfort range. Whatever the reason, they want out and they want their deposit back. You feel that you have a legitimate claim on that money as you took your house off the market and have suffered a financial hardship by not having the sale close as planned. Should you try to hold the buyers to the contract or have them forfeit their deposit? My advice on this would be NO! Have the buyer sign a cancellation agreement, instruct the escrow holder to return their money and cancel the contract immediately.
If you don’t agree to cancel, you will likely find yourself in an unwelcome situation. But, you upheld your end of the contract and they didn’t, so they were in the wrong. Yes, that’s true, but if you still want to sell your house in any kind of timely manner and not spend a fortune on legal fees, then you have to let go. If you don’t give the buyer their money back, they will probably not agree to cancel the contract. Even though you are in the right, the buyer could file a “lis pendens" (lawsuit pending) on your property, or file a small claims action to recover their money. If this happens, you will not be able to obtain title insurance and, in effect, you will not be able to close a deal with another buyer until the matter is resolved in the courts. I had a seller once who was so incensed by a buyer who just wanted out (he was extremely rude and insulting when she didn’t agree) that she refused to sign cancellation instructions and release the buyer’s deposit. Needless to say, the buyer sued for the return of his earnest money ($10,000). My seller decided she was not going to give in on principle as she was in the right. Her house was now effectively off the market as the prior “sale" had not been cancelled. It took almost nine months and about $20,000 in legal fees to resolve. She won in court and got to keep the deposit but by this time there had been a spike in interest rates and the market had slowed down. Her listing had expired during this time and I was not willing to re-list the property as, had she listened to me in the first place and just let go and got on with it, the house would most likely have “sold" again within a couple of weeks. Also, if you do try to make the buyer go through with the sale, I would bet that the deal would collapse at some later point in the escrow period due to some other action, or inaction, on the buyer’s part and you would have lost all that time off the market.
This article is not intended to be legal advice. For legal advice always consult the appropriate licensed professional.
Even those who don't have sites but are frequent internet users knows this as well. Articles quench the thirst for information and knowledge of the people. Plus, the articles provides many other benefits for the site.
The benefits that articles provide are putting a site high in the ranking in search results of keywords and keyword phrases that pertains or are relevant to his or her site. They also provide attraction to website visitors when they are appreciated and is linked to your site from another site or newsletter. Articles provide for the increase of the confidence and trust levels of customers to your site and company.
Articles have enormous potential benefits to any company or business owners, particularly the aspect of driving traffic to their sites. People who like reading your articles are more likely to recommend it to their peers, friends or family members, or even their business partners.
This translates into targeted traffic to their sites and it is free traffic as well. You get bigger sales if your traffic trusts and believes in you. Your product or services would be much easier to sell when they know you know what you are doing and talking about.
So ok, we have established that articles are very important to a site and to business. Articles are crucial and to keep ahead in the game, a site must have an article, it is imperative. There is one dilemma though, not many people like writing articles.
Many website owners would rather spend their time on something else, and unless you are a big time company, you don't have the necessary resources to use on a pool of article writers. Plagiarism or copying of other articles is frowned upon and could easily get you into trouble, worst case scenario; a hefty fine and jail time.
So what are the other options?
Well, for starters if you hate writing articles and you can't afford to hire people to write for you then don't. Get free articles. The first place to look at for free articles is the public domain. Here you won't have problems with copyright infringement and the following penalties and fines if you get caught for plagiarism.
Public domain articles are articles freely given to the public for public use. You can do whatever you want with it. You can place it on your site, name it as yours, put it in a newsletter its you decision. Always remember though that you will have to choose articles that is very relevant to your site.
The downside to public domain articles is that since it is free for everybody, many of your competitors may have access to them as well. Since every site needs to be original and unique even though you have the same niche, this could be a predicament. You may also have to edit them a bit to place more keywords and keyword phrases to make them better.
Another way to get free articles is to allow other sites which has the same subject or topic as yours to submit articles to your site. This would be only to augment your existing content or else all your articles would be leading to other sites since these articles would have resource boxes with them that could link or direct the readers to their site. That's why it is important to have your own articles; you cold use them to link your site to other sites as well.
But, to truly feel the impact of what a good article to you, go for original ones. There are many article writers who do part time and freelance article writing jobs that charges only minimal fees. You can get good articles that have all the keywords and keyword phrases you need and people are looking for.
The investment you made for these articles would be worthwhile because you could use them for all the benefits you could offer. You hold copyrights to them and you will be able to use them anyway you want. As your articles help you in building your business and your site, you will have more articles to write and maybe then you wont be having second thoughts about articles.
Both David Mcnaught Mcnaught & Suresh Kumar are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
David Mcnaught Mcnaught has sinced written about articles on various topics from Internet Marketing. You are free to reprint this article and include it in your website or blog, provided that it is NOT edited, the author's information and website below is included, and the links are inserted as live links. David McNaught has been a licensed r. David Mcnaught Mcnaught's top article generates over 480 views. to your Favourites.