Hi I’m Marcie Billen with Rüya Team Realty and Keller Williams Mulinix here in Norman, Oklahoma. In this post, I’ll explain how you can cancel your real estate purchase agreement and what that means for you – here we go! If you want more info about the transaction process from contract to close, watch this video.
Okay so first of all, I’m not an attorney, so if you have legal questions, please talk to an attorney. At the same time, there are a few places in Oklahoma real estate purchase contracts where you can get out of the agreement. For example, if you choose to do a purchase contract and maybe something happened – you changed your mind or inspections went horribly wrong. There are places where you can actually get out of the contract as a buyer.
Is it hard?
In real estate purchase agreements in Oklahoma, it’s pretty simple to get out of the contract, if you’re still in the inspection period. The inspection period begins at a time indicated on the contract, so it can be the date that the contract is signed, or two days later, up to a week later, depending on the circumstances. I always mark those days and my Google calendar on my phone so what I know exactly when they start, and when they end, and how many days I have left.
Will I get my earnest money back?
There’s also a section on the contract that indicates how many days you’ll get to do inspections. Like I said, you’re going to want to mark these in your calendar so that you understand exactly how many days you may have left. For instance, your inspection period could start on June 1st and maybe it will go for 10 days, so it will end on June 10th. During the inspection period, if for some reason, the house isn’t up to your standards or expectations, or it has a lot more work than you thought it was going to have, then that’s your time to easily get out of the contract. You can very simply get your earnest money back by asking for it and sending a notification of cancellation and release of earnest money to the seller.
What if I just change my mind?
There are a few other areas in the Oklahoma real estate contract where you can get out of the contract and most of those are in the loan supplements. And that’s another video for another day. During the inspection period, what if you just change your mind? What if you have a car accident? What if you suddenly get a job offer somewhere else? Can you just change your mind and get out of the contract during the inspection period? Yes, you don’t have to tell the seller why you’re getting out of the contract. That’s your built-in time to inspect the house and if it doesn’t live up to your expectations, or even if you change your mind (because you don’t have to tell the seller why your cancelling) that’s okay. You can get out then.
Are there penalties for cancelling?
Now, later on if you get past the inspection period, can you get out of the contract? Well, maybe and sometimes – and it all depends on the situation. What other contingencies did you have? Did you have a loan contingency? or were you paying cash? These are all really important things to consider, and take time to understand if you want that house by the time you get out of your inspection period. If your past your inspection period and your loan has cleared, so you have no other contract contingencies left, it may be harder for you to get out of this contract. The seller the very least, will be aggravated.
And at the most, could actually end up suing you if you’ve just changed your mind without any reason to actually get out of the contract. They can sue you let’s say, for time that their house has been off the market, and maybe other expenses that they have incurred. But, that’s all up to the attorneys.
Do you need more info on the home buying process? Check out this other post or call, email, text me with your questions!
