The Seller Who Changes His Mind

Anyone who has been in this business for any amount of time can tell you that it is a business full of ups and downs. One moment you can be excited and enthused about closing a great deal – a seller signs a contract with you to take over his property with a mortgage balance that is 40% below the ARV.

Sounds like a deal that you don’t want to pass up… and you certainly don’t want to. But it can be very frustrating when the seller changes his mind 24 hours after signing the contract that he no longer wants to do it and wants to list the property.

So trying to choose whether or not to try and fight the guy in court or just give it back to him can be a difficult decision. Here are a few things to remember. No matter what you get out of the deal, it's likely not going to be worth the pain and addition to that. It is unfortunate that the guy changed his mind the next day. Can you create havoc? Yes you can. But if this thing goes to court, you're not going to win. The judge is going to feel so sorry for this unsuspecting homeowner that obviously was not big enough to take care of himself. The judge is likely going to go his way. Not only that, but just about any attorney can find a way to overturn that contract and poke holes in it and you're probably not going to survive this game.

Is it possible that you could hold them out for some money? You probably could. But keep in mind that there is a big difference between somebody that signed a contract and wants to back out the next day then somebody who signs it and wants to back out two months later. Under these circumstances, you would be better off to cut your losses and run on this one and quit worrying about it. In the end, that's the safest, easiest, cleanest thing you can do. And you're going to like yourself better if you do that than if you take the other approach.
If you actually have the deed, this may be a different situation altogether. If it just a contract that you have, let it go and move on. There are other fish out there to fry!

For additional information on real estate investing and the hot foreclosure market, I recommend joining Ron LeGrand's Millionaire Maker Newsletter The newsletter itself is loaded with great tips and resources, and he's usually giving away something free like a CD or something that generally has a lot of great information on it.