SOUND OFF

Jay Stoneburner

Q: What is the most common area where misunderstandings may arise between a homebuyer and a home seller?

A: Probably the most misunderstood is on the contract itself. There is a part called the third-party financing condition addendum. It says the buyer has so many days to get his financing in order to receive the earnest money if he doesn’t buy the property.

The biggest controversy is the buyer has to secure financing. He goes to buy property and he puts down earnest money, normally $1,000 to $2,000. Then the buyer has a certain amount of time — usually it’s 10 days — to get his financing.

If it goes over that, he’s committed to buying the property whether he gets the financing or not, and most of these loans take 30 to 45 days to get approved. If something goes wrong and they don’t get the financing, the buyer thinks, “Oh, I get my money back,” but they don’t get their money back. Sometimes the seller will feel sorry for them and give it back, but they’re not obligated to.

As Realtors, we try to do our due diligence and make sure both parties are aware when they sign the contract. The biggest deal we do is we really try to educate. Everybody is happy so long as there are no surprises.

— Jay Stoneburner, Stoneburner and Associate Realtors, 713-686-8844, sjstone117@aol.com