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Message: [QUOTE="upstater, post: 3786484, member: 153"] I've backed out of a house twice before, and the reputation stuck with us (unfairly, if you ask me) even a decade later, as I was told recently by my buyer's agent. It can get messy. The first time, the kitchen smelled like sewage during our inspection. Smell wasn't there when we saw the house. Our inspector said it was broken vent stacks behind the plaster walls, and since this was a very large Victorian house, we nixed the deal. There was much anger on that one. But nothing like the second time when the bank that approved our sale (& even the inspection) couldn't get our podunk appraiser from the sticks to realize he was in a big city and not on a pasture. There was just nothing to be done--house was appraised at under $150k of our offer, and we were already at 25% down. Similar houses next to the one we wanted to buy were assessed by the city at over our offer price! The seller's agent insisted that the earnest money of $15k therefore belonged to the seller. Our attorney worked 6 months to get the money back, charged us $0 for his work, but before it ever went to court, the President of the seller agent's agency fired the agent and sent the money back to me. Both times we were justified, and ultimately we ended up in a house we loved. 3rd times the charm. But 17 years later, we're downsizing, and just bought a house half the size. Our buyer's agent told me that our attempts to buy 17 years ago were still remembered in that realtor community. This, in a metro region of 1.3 million people. Real estate is crazy. [/QUOTE]

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