Can you get out of an oral offer to purchase home?

Question

I'll try to make this short. We do not have an agent, seller does have an agent. His contract with his agent expires in 2 months. We orally offered "X", seller accepted, and we agreed that we would do this when his contract with his agent expires (so he can obviously make more $$).

We have now found a similar house we like, for less money, to which we want to make an offer. Is our oral agreement with seller #1 legit, or can we do as we please since nothing was in writing at all...?

Answer 1

Your offer is worth the paper it's printed on - nothing.

Answer 2

verbal agreement is just that. can not hold up under a court of law.

Answer 3

A verbal offer is pretty much worthless, that's why they have those long offer agreements in real estate transaction.

It's worth pointing out that your offer was probably not going to work anyway, because the seller's agent would be entitled to the commission on any transaction where the person saw and agreed to buy within the contract period, even if the tranaction only formally occurred afterward.  Just trying to do that makes you and the seller pretty suspect in my books.

So you short answer is that they cannot enforce this verbal, possibly fraudulent deal.

  

Answer 4

You have no offer, you can do whatever you want.

Answer 5

There’s no such think as an oral contract in real estate. It’s either written or it doesn’t exist.

You made the right choice walking away from this guy. If too stupid to realize his listing agent would still have been entitled to commission from your sale because you initially saw it during the listing, who knows what other legal corners he would have tired to cut with you!  

Answer 6

Your oral offer is worthless, although if I were the seller, I'd be extremely annoyed with you.

If I were the seller's agent, I'd be even *more* annoyed -- except for the fact that if the agent is the one who initially showed you the house, she would be owed her commission on the sale anyway, even if you didn't submit your formal offer until after her contract with the seller had expired. (The seller should read his contract more carefully and I'm sure he'll see that in there somewhere. It's pretty standard.)

Answer 7

Look. What goes around comes around. The seller tried to shaft his real estate agent, and you're trying to shaft him. You tried to shaft the real estate agent, and now you may get shafted by the seller.

I'm not a lawyer, so this isn't legal advice. However....

Here's the deal. An oral contract in real estate is legal but it is not enforceable. So, while you have a contract to purchase the property (orally), there's no way that contract can be enforced. So, you can "do as we please."

A few points, though: Real estate listing agreements generally include a certain period after the expiration during which the seller still owes the commission if someone who viewed the property during the listing agreement purchases. That's often either 30 days or 60 days. So, the seller might still have been on the hook for the commission.

Second: You should always have your own agent. It doesn't cost any more, and there are various benefits.

Third: You're mighty generous, all concerned that the seller can make more money.

Still, your answer is that you can proceed on; the agreement you had with the seller is not enforceable.

Answer 8

no writing/no deal

Answer 9

You are not obligated to anything.

Oral real estate contracts are NOT binding in ANY state.

He can't do a thing about it.

Go shopping!