I’m selling my parents’ home after my mother passed, and we’ve been through a lot with this market. We decided to take the house off the market and move back in if we didn’t get any offers. Within 24 hours of that decision, we got two offers. The first was low, but they agreed to buy AS IS with no concessions. The second was much higher, with $151k in earnest money. We were told to focus on the second offer and signed the purchase agreement. Now, 24 hours later, the buyer’s agent says he made a mistake and put the down payment instead of earnest money on the contract. They want us to sign an amendment for a customary 1% earnest money instead. We feel duped and pressured. Can we ask for contingencies in this situation? We feel like we’ve lost negotiation power due to their mistake.
Tell them to cancel the contract if they don’t like it, and you keep the earnest. Seriously, ask for a new clean offer. If they want to negotiate, let the first offer back in the play and see how serious they are.
There’s no reason to be dramatic about the earnest money. What contingencies do you want to add?
It was a clerical error on their part. You should just ask them to resend a clean offer and mention the second offer you still have.
You weren’t duped. $151k is already insane for earnest money. Just focus on getting the sale done.
It does feel off. But this seems like a dumb oversight rather than malicious. Your agent should have clarified the earnest money situation better.
We relied on our agents to guide us through this, and now we feel misled. The earnest money was emphasized as a sign of seriousness.