it could have been killed during the attorney review period anyway. I don’t think you have any recourse based solely on the verbal acceptance of your offer. The statute of frauds requires real estate dealings to be in writing to be enforceable. There are no writings applicable to you. The same thing just happened to me. I made a lowball offer which was verbally accepted. Suddenly the seller became very difficult to reach and very obstinate about
the deal (the contract erms were ridiculous and everything suddenly became “take it or leave it”.) I left it and later learned he had gotten an offer $55,000 higher! Can’t really blame the guy.I also got stuck with an inspection fee and some legal fees. Bummer. The cost of doing business, I suppose. There is always the chance that deal will fall through.
Seller takes higher offer after signing a binder - Posted by stockranger73
Posted by stockranger73 on March 02, 2002 at 16:48:28:
Do we have any legal recourse? We had an accepted offer on a house we were purchasing. We had the house inspected and had applied for a mortgage. Out of pocket expenses were $725.00. The seller’s attorney sent the contract to our attorney. Five days later, the seller’s attorney informed our attorney that the seller had accepted another offer. The reason given was we had taken too long to get a signed contract. Real reason, a higher bid. The seller had signed a binder with the real estate broker and had signed a document with the listing agent that indicated that once an offer was proffered the agent should not come to them with additional offers. The listing agent brought the higher offer to the seller after accepting our offer and after signing a binder. How can we get our out of pocket expenses back?
You can always try conciliation court (small claims). The rules there are pretty casual and slanted to common sense. It may take a while but it’s worth a try just to see how it works.
All the best, Lyal