Posted by Andy on February 01, 2001 at 09:27:58:
Hi Ed!
To answer your question, the term flip simply means someone is buying a property and selling it immediately without living in it. It may also be used in some areas to describe an investor who puts a contract on a property and then tries to sell it to someone else before he actually has to “buy” the property. This is what you asked about. You should get a deposit. If you don’t want this to be done, you should not allow the contract to be “assignable”. I would be very hesitant about letting some stranger show your home. I would have wording to the effect that the original buyer would lose the deposit if he didn’t close at the specified time.
In my view, there is nothing wrong with an investor doing this, but as a seller, you don’t want your property tied up for 60 days and then have nothing to show for it but a measly deposit!