Question about agent making a mistake

[cortni414]

Our real estate agent calculated that we would net almost 60,000 from the sale of our house...this number in turn made us accept an offer on our house and reflected how much we were going to put down on the new house. Well after we signed the loan for the new house we realized she made a huge mistake and our net was only going to be 52,000...I contacted her broker and basically he said there was nothing they could do and we as sellers should have known what our net was going to be. My question is, is there any legal action we can take against the real estate agent/broker to make them pay for their mistake or are we just screwed? We basically have a signed contract to sell our house and a signed contract to buy a new house, so we have to sell/buy correct?

[First Time Home Buyers]

Correct, you have to sell in order to buy, and you are held by all the legally binding contracts.

As far as going after them for the money/difference, I don't think you have much.

The agent probably filled out a "Seller's Net Sheet" which is really just an estimate of what you would get from the sale of your house. If you failed to report something to them that ended up factoring in, then it's obviously not the agent's fault.

If they filled out the Sheet several months ago, then maybe some things have changed (Taxes, insurance, mortgage interest rates, etc.) in which case that's no one's fault either.

My guess is that the $8,000 hurts a little, and is a surprise because of what they said. But in the grand scheme of the numbers you've reported, it's not as if you're now LOSING money from the sale, or something as drastic as that.

I don't think there's anything you can do to make it right, other than talking to the agent and telling then how disappointed you are with their mistake.

[escapeso]

Yeah I think it would be hard to take legal action. My general assumption these days is everyone is bad at math. Accountants, lawyers, etc. I look over everything these days. We just found a mistake on our taxes that saved us a few thousand. Its cool but it makes me question why we are paying a tax person to help us.

[FrankN]

I don't think there is reall not much you can do. The agent made an estimate with what the profit was going to be. Now if it was conveyed in the contract, then maybe you have something. But other then that there really isn't much you can do.

[GEORGIAKW]

I'm curious, what was the mistake the agent made? Unless something came up in an inspection the most you would have to deduct from the sales price is the commision plus any closing costs you agreed to pay in the offer/counteroffer.

[Waterfront Realtor]

i m eager to know that what was the mistake the agent made?

[maryd]

I would check your "mortgage payoff" amount, and not use the balance on your statement. Payoff amounts are always higher. Also, property taxes may have gone up

[donnalong]

Hey, I am curious how this turned out. Did you make the sale and purchase? Did you get any concessions from the agent/broker?

I think typically these should be presented to you as an estimate and not a fact. I am not sure you would have any legal recourse but it definitely shows why an agent should take these kinds of estimates seriously.

[ogden34]

Its an agent fault of miscalculating the net amount that you can get out of the home sold. But, I think you can't do nothing about it to take any legal actions, so far as I know no case have been filed like that. What you can do is that be careful in hiring an agent next time that you will do transactions like that.

[manilaestates]

My question is, is there any legal action we can take against the real estate agent/broker to make them pay for their mistake or are we just screwed? We basically have a signed contract to sell our house and a signed contract to buy a new house, so we have to sell/buy correct?

You need a lawyer to fix it. That's a huge case, and a real estate lawyer can help you with the day-to-day specifics of ownership transaction and other concerns you might have.