Cosmo there are several “contingency” periods. One of them is your loan contingency, or what you are referring to as the lending contingency period. In general, the date of acceptance is when the clock starts ticking so to speak. In your case it may be different but more then likely it is not. From that point you X days that you can back out of the deal because you did not get the loan for whatever reason. Perhaps you didn’t get your desired rate, perhaps something has changed in your life, whatever the reason, if you don’t get the loan you want you can essentially use this contingency to back out. This contingency has nothing to do with you having or not having to sell another home.
Most all lenders that have properties will use a broker or auction house in one form or another to represent them for the property sale. The fine that they are imposing on you is directly from the lender and goes to the lender. The brokerage gets none of it. While this is a speculative statement by me it generally holds true. I know you want to focus your ire on this middleman but in all honesty it is the lender who owns the home that you should gripe about.
If your loan agent is stating this is bogus, ask your loan agent how many contracts they have reviewed for REO properties and if they say ALOT of them then all I can tell you is what you have described is fairly standard with respect to the ones I have seen. I am meeting someone for breakfast tomorrow to present and IDENTICAL contract addendum that you discussed, even down to the late fee. The listing agent is Coldwell Banker and it is an REO property.
As for lesser jedi and all that… I pretty much just laugh… I am to busy to really care.
