Down Payment vs Earnest Money

They must be refering to the earnest money. If your contract is for a cash purchase, the only money needed up front is the earnest money. If the seller agreed to the terms of your offer, which says earnest money will be deposited within ten days after acceptance, you would not need to come up with the money until that time. You can get the end buyer to supply that money.

Al

Realtors are taught that Earnest Money must be included in the contract to have a contract. There are 3 binding elements of a contract: Capacity, Consideration, and Consent. And without Consideration or Earnest Money the agent feels that there is no deal in the first place. He apparently is confused about the offer and what you have stated in the contract about your earnest money deposit.

If you have a signed contract with the earnest money to be deposited later that is O.K. and the seller is fine with that. Earnest money can be an IOU, a promissary note, a check that can not be deposited except under certain circumstances(maybe it is approval from a partner or after contractual conditions are met - inspection period)There has been legal precedent for the "signature" alone on the contract as being sufficient consideration.

Now a down payment is different. This is something usually required by the bank you are working with. They will dictate the amount down that is required for them to guarantee the loan they are going to make you. So if you are making a cash offer, you would not be filling out a financing addendum along with the contract. But if you are using a financing addendum that addendum will ask questions on how much down you will need to satisfy the loan, or what you propose or offer as a contingency.

I hope that this helps you!

I've also included some exit clauses in my contract like "this contract is contingent upon buyer obtaining financing". Since I'm presenting an all cash offer are you saying I can't use this contingency?

how does a RE lawyer get paid for his work if he's helping out the middle man in the transaction, which in this case would be me, the investor? I understand that the closing costs of a real estate transaction include attorney fees and the end buyer is responsible for paying those closing costs. so is the end buyer going to pay my attorney who helped me out with my contracts and his money due at closing or when?

anybody?

Real Estate transactions have a paper trail. Everything is explained in writing. You will have a written agreement with your lawyer. If that agreement states that the end buyer will pay the fees, and the end buyer understands this when he signs the assignment agreement, the end buyer will pay the fee. If you have an agreement with your lawyer that gives you the responsibility to pay the fee, then the responsibility is yours.

Al

Generally, as you said attorneys are paid in connection with the closing. When a lawyer is helping / creating contracts they are paid by the person that asked them to create the contracts - meaning you.

What you can do to get the cost moved from you to someone else would be to ask the investor buyer to include the cost of your lawyer into their closing costs. You can also ask the lawyer to wait a short time for payment and ask them to bill the new buyer.

If that fails you can include the cost of the lawyer into your fee. For example: You normally charge a fee of $4000 for the type of deal you are doing but you instead charge $4800 to cover the lawyer.

What happens if a seller refuses to sign a contract with no initial earnest money but verbally accepts the offer. If he requires me to put money in escrow in order for him to believe I am a serious buyer and allow me to tie down for 10, 15 or 30 days.?

can you tell us about your deal give us the numbers we are all curious? I also am hoping to have a deal real soon Ifound a property (a fixer upper) that was baught back in 1922 and it got forclosed on last year for some reason, the property taxes are just 1,000.00 dollars, and it needs a lot of work, i am gonna offer to pay 45,000 for the property. The FMV of the properties around that neigborhood are at around 250,000.00 to 350,000.00 it probably needs about 70-90 thousand worth of repairs but when you resell it you make huge profit!!!!wish me luck...

This is an REO, meaning this property has been foreclosed on because the owner couldn't meet their payments. The bank now owns this property.
Price‎: $514,900‎
Bathrooms‎: 3‎
Listing type‎: foreclosure‎
Lot size‎: 2,000‎
Feature‎: Colonial Garage: N Basement: Y Lot Size: 1817‎
Bedrooms‎: 4‎
Posted on‎: November 30, 2009‎
Property type‎: single family‎
Year built‎: 1920‎

Question: What is the steps for me to get hold of it... and what can I offer the bank.. how can I calculate it.

I'm totally new in this forum, and have recently moved to USA, that means I haven't had a chance to build up my credit score.. and I looking for a job.. hard to find those days... but I don't give up. My wife is an American citizen.. and me.. I'm just a green card holder. I haven't get the book I ordered last week.. so that's why I asking how I should act in this case.

I will need a financing help with it...

Arc, Good luck on that deal it sounds like a real $$maker.As 4 me , I havent put in an offer yet but i have spoke to a few realtors that all say the same thing . I need to put earnest money in escrow to show buyers i am serious.I will use DGs ideas using no money and see what happens at that point. I have seen many re contracts but never with no earnest money.Im still looking at deals and havent decided which ones i may want to explore yet . hope to put in a few offers by monday.

I just got my book a few days ago but if you search this website and all the forums , Q & A section etc , (as i did while waiting for my book), you will find answers to most of your questions. Try using the search link . Good Luck 2-Ya

Yea. You will find tons of info on this site .....ITS OVERLOAD !!!

I reading so that my eyes bleeding now.. lol
Its a lot..
But I don't know if I doing wrong with the http://www.4closurealert.com
In Brooklyn its only info from 2007 and some from 2008.. but nothing from 2009
I found new ones in Manhattan.. but as I said.. nothing from my aria.. but when I Google map Brooklyn I find a bunch.. bet not ant thing about owner and history.. but it was at least updated.

Answering my own question ....I found an investor that will work with me on low earnest money requirements if needed.

They are out there if you take the time to look.

But....Its always best to go NO MONEY DOWN or defer that payment when you lock a contract. If for any reason you have to walk away there is no loss of funds on your part.

i'll be honest, i'm more than a little confused after reading that little lot.

now im confused when you say "after reading that little lot".What is that ?