question about short sale contract.. Fraud???

**bczek** · 03-19-2010, 12:01 PM

hello, first time posting and first time home buyer here and have a problem on my hands or so it would appear. My agent and i found THE house that i want. It was short sale for $89000... We offered $85000 and 3 days later recieved a response from sellers realtor saying offer was accepter. We than get the contract from them and they changed the price to $75,000, seller pays closing costs... we thought that was great, but then there is another contract labeled as "addendum" and on it states that at the time of closing the buyer will pay an additional $9500 to a third party company that is supposively part of the short sale deal. I am fine with this because i am getting the house for $80k after offering and willing to pay $85.

my agent is very very nervous because he has never seen this before and has not yet submitted the signed contract. his thinking is that the seller agent somehow found out what the bank would accept, than took our offer and lowered it to $75k, paid closing costs, but tacked on $9500, knowing that it still ends up being less than what i was originally willing to pay.

The other factor is that the seller, whom i know, gave power to attorney and has no clue that there is even a contract on the house because someone else signed it for him.

does this sound legit or should i stay away from it?!? my fear is that if it is legit, the sellers agent will cancel the contract because we are taking too long to sign and return it. It has been 4 days since i recieved the contract from them. I dont want to lose the house because i want it so badly but i dont want to be involved in anything illegal either. please give your advice, thank you so much!!!

**maui** · 03-19-2010, 06:01 PM

I have been dealing with quite a fair amount of short sales recently and I have not heard of this happening. So who is the 3rd party to whom you would be paying the $9500? It sounds like a way for the seller (or whoever has power-of-attorney) to recoup some of the losses. You said that you know the seller, have you mentioned to him/her that you put an offer on his property?

**bczek** · 03-22-2010, 08:45 AM

we have told the seller that there is a contract on his house. the other realtor just contacted mine and said that there is also a deposit of $10k needed by tomorrow into an escrow account?? should i just walk away?!? please help asap