Purchase contract for short sale legally enforceable?

[Jack]

Has anyone pursued legal action against a short seller for failure to live up to their part of the contract?

For example, if they will not pay for the HOA package, would we be able to force them to pay by court order or mediation? Not that I would (my time is worth more than that), but if every short sale is like this, then what is the point of a contract in the first place?

Seems to me that if I performed as I said I would and lived up to my part of the contract, then I should be able to force the seller to perform or pay some sort of penalty for breach of contract.

Bottom line is, how much teeth do these purchase contracts have? Will the courts enforce them?

[urbanrealtor]

Before you go all legalistic on their asses, you might want to recall that the seller is broke (hence the short sale).

This may not be their fault. It may be that there is a property manager who does not really understand the position he is in and that if there is no short sale, the HOA gets zero. It may be that the first lien holder is stupid and is unwilling to give the HOA any amount of sale proceeds.

I just got a $5400 HOA debt worked out for $3400
$1000 was paid out of escrow and the rest was paid at $200 a month for a year by the sellers. I would have been more aggressive but the sellers wanted to work it out–whatever.

However, a lot of deals get destroyed because an hoa gets greedy or because the agent does not think to bargain.

While not technically legal, you might want to offer to cover some of the amount and work it out directly with the HOA. It sucks but if a few thousand would allow you to complete a purchase of a few hundred thousand then it might be worth considering.

Good luck and feel free to ask me any questions here or directly

urbanrealtor at gmail

[urbanrealtor]

Before you go all legalistic on their asses, you might want to recall that the seller is broke (hence the short sale).

This may not be their fault. It may be that there is a property manager who does not really understand the position he is in and that if there is no short sale, the HOA gets zero. It may be that the first lien holder is stupid and is unwilling to give the HOA any amount of sale proceeds.

I just got a $5400 HOA debt worked out for $3400
$1000 was paid out of escrow and the rest was paid at $200 a month for a year by the sellers. I would have been more aggressive but the sellers wanted to work it out–whatever.

However, a lot of deals get destroyed because an hoa gets greedy or because the agent does not think to bargain.

While not technically legal, you might want to offer to cover some of the amount and work it out directly with the HOA. It sucks but if a few thousand would allow you to complete a purchase of a few hundred thousand then it might be worth considering.

Good luck and feel free to ask me any questions here or directly

urbanrealtor at gmail

[urbanrealtor]

Before you go all legalistic on their asses, you might want to recall that the seller is broke (hence the short sale).

This may not be their fault. It may be that there is a property manager who does not really understand the position he is in and that if there is no short sale, the HOA gets zero. It may be that the first lien holder is stupid and is unwilling to give the HOA any amount of sale proceeds.

I just got a $5400 HOA debt worked out for $3400
$1000 was paid out of escrow and the rest was paid at $200 a month for a year by the sellers. I would have been more aggressive but the sellers wanted to work it out–whatever.

However, a lot of deals get destroyed because an hoa gets greedy or because the agent does not think to bargain.

While not technically legal, you might want to offer to cover some of the amount and work it out directly with the HOA. It sucks but if a few thousand would allow you to complete a purchase of a few hundred thousand then it might be worth considering.

Good luck and feel free to ask me any questions here or directly

urbanrealtor at gmail

[urbanrealtor]

Before you go all legalistic on their asses, you might want to recall that the seller is broke (hence the short sale).

This may not be their fault. It may be that there is a property manager who does not really understand the position he is in and that if there is no short sale, the HOA gets zero. It may be that the first lien holder is stupid and is unwilling to give the HOA any amount of sale proceeds.

I just got a $5400 HOA debt worked out for $3400
$1000 was paid out of escrow and the rest was paid at $200 a month for a year by the sellers. I would have been more aggressive but the sellers wanted to work it out–whatever.

However, a lot of deals get destroyed because an hoa gets greedy or because the agent does not think to bargain.

While not technically legal, you might want to offer to cover some of the amount and work it out directly with the HOA. It sucks but if a few thousand would allow you to complete a purchase of a few hundred thousand then it might be worth considering.

Good luck and feel free to ask me any questions here or directly

urbanrealtor at gmail

[urbanrealtor]

Before you go all legalistic on their asses, you might want to recall that the seller is broke (hence the short sale).

This may not be their fault. It may be that there is a property manager who does not really understand the position he is in and that if there is no short sale, the HOA gets zero. It may be that the first lien holder is stupid and is unwilling to give the HOA any amount of sale proceeds.

I just got a $5400 HOA debt worked out for $3400
$1000 was paid out of escrow and the rest was paid at $200 a month for a year by the sellers. I would have been more aggressive but the sellers wanted to work it out–whatever.

However, a lot of deals get destroyed because an hoa gets greedy or because the agent does not think to bargain.

While not technically legal, you might want to offer to cover some of the amount and work it out directly with the HOA. It sucks but if a few thousand would allow you to complete a purchase of a few hundred thousand then it might be worth considering.

Good luck and feel free to ask me any questions here or directly

urbanrealtor at gmail

[patientrenter]

[quote=urbanrealtor]Before you go all legalistic on their asses, you might want to recall that the seller is broke (hence the short sale)….[/quote]

A short sale is not the same as a bankruptcy. You can own an expensive BMW, a 401k, a stock portfolio, another property, and… lots of other things, and still get a short sale.

[patientrenter]

[quote=urbanrealtor]Before you go all legalistic on their asses, you might want to recall that the seller is broke (hence the short sale)….[/quote]

A short sale is not the same as a bankruptcy. You can own an expensive BMW, a 401k, a stock portfolio, another property, and… lots of other things, and still get a short sale.

[patientrenter]

[quote=urbanrealtor]Before you go all legalistic on their asses, you might want to recall that the seller is broke (hence the short sale)….[/quote]

A short sale is not the same as a bankruptcy. You can own an expensive BMW, a 401k, a stock portfolio, another property, and… lots of other things, and still get a short sale.

[patientrenter]

[quote=urbanrealtor]Before you go all legalistic on their asses, you might want to recall that the seller is broke (hence the short sale)….[/quote]

A short sale is not the same as a bankruptcy. You can own an expensive BMW, a 401k, a stock portfolio, another property, and… lots of other things, and still get a short sale.

[patientrenter]

[quote=urbanrealtor]Before you go all legalistic on their asses, you might want to recall that the seller is broke (hence the short sale)….[/quote]

A short sale is not the same as a bankruptcy. You can own an expensive BMW, a 401k, a stock portfolio, another property, and… lots of other things, and still get a short sale.

[urbanrealtor]

[quote=patientrenter][quote=urbanrealtor]Before you go all legalistic on their asses, you might want to recall that the seller is broke (hence the short sale)….[/quote]

A short sale is not the same as a bankruptcy. You can own an expensive BMW, a 401k, a stock portfolio, another property, and… lots of other things, and still get a short sale.[/quote]

Correct.
However, the seller has already indicated an unwillingness or inability to contribute additional funds to this deal. Even if this were an elective short sale for a rich person (which is rare but not unheard of) there are additional measures protecting the seller from action. Specifically, the CAR RPA (which is, I suspect, the document the OP references) generally gets coupled with either the CAR Short Sale Addendum or the San Diego Association of Realtors Addendum to Purchase Agreement (SDAR APA) either of which specifically excludes the claim option for buyers.

Either way, it is very tough to force somebody to pay a debt to a third party so that they can lose money selling a house to you.

There are exceptions to this but they are pretty rare.

[urbanrealtor]

[quote=patientrenter][quote=urbanrealtor]Before you go all legalistic on their asses, you might want to recall that the seller is broke (hence the short sale)….[/quote]

A short sale is not the same as a bankruptcy. You can own an expensive BMW, a 401k, a stock portfolio, another property, and… lots of other things, and still get a short sale.[/quote]

Correct.
However, the seller has already indicated an unwillingness or inability to contribute additional funds to this deal. Even if this were an elective short sale for a rich person (which is rare but not unheard of) there are additional measures protecting the seller from action. Specifically, the CAR RPA (which is, I suspect, the document the OP references) generally gets coupled with either the CAR Short Sale Addendum or the San Diego Association of Realtors Addendum to Purchase Agreement (SDAR APA) either of which specifically excludes the claim option for buyers.

Either way, it is very tough to force somebody to pay a debt to a third party so that they can lose money selling a house to you.

There are exceptions to this but they are pretty rare.

[urbanrealtor]

[quote=patientrenter][quote=urbanrealtor]Before you go all legalistic on their asses, you might want to recall that the seller is broke (hence the short sale)….[/quote]

A short sale is not the same as a bankruptcy. You can own an expensive BMW, a 401k, a stock portfolio, another property, and… lots of other things, and still get a short sale.[/quote]

Correct.
However, the seller has already indicated an unwillingness or inability to contribute additional funds to this deal. Even if this were an elective short sale for a rich person (which is rare but not unheard of) there are additional measures protecting the seller from action. Specifically, the CAR RPA (which is, I suspect, the document the OP references) generally gets coupled with either the CAR Short Sale Addendum or the San Diego Association of Realtors Addendum to Purchase Agreement (SDAR APA) either of which specifically excludes the claim option for buyers.

Either way, it is very tough to force somebody to pay a debt to a third party so that they can lose money selling a house to you.

There are exceptions to this but they are pretty rare.

[urbanrealtor]

[quote=patientrenter][quote=urbanrealtor]Before you go all legalistic on their asses, you might want to recall that the seller is broke (hence the short sale)….[/quote]

A short sale is not the same as a bankruptcy. You can own an expensive BMW, a 401k, a stock portfolio, another property, and… lots of other things, and still get a short sale.[/quote]

Correct.
However, the seller has already indicated an unwillingness or inability to contribute additional funds to this deal. Even if this were an elective short sale for a rich person (which is rare but not unheard of) there are additional measures protecting the seller from action. Specifically, the CAR RPA (which is, I suspect, the document the OP references) generally gets coupled with either the CAR Short Sale Addendum or the San Diego Association of Realtors Addendum to Purchase Agreement (SDAR APA) either of which specifically excludes the claim option for buyers.

Either way, it is very tough to force somebody to pay a debt to a third party so that they can lose money selling a house to you.

There are exceptions to this but they are pretty rare.

[Author]

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