How To Articles
How to Cancel or Re-Negotiate a Real Estate Deal? Part I
By
Jan 6, 2006, 02:15

There are a lot of people out there who feel there is some universal law that allows them to cancel within a certain period of time after they have signed a purchase agreement to buy real estate or a manufactured home. If you ask most people they will tell you either they have three days or fifteen days to cancel. This is not true.

There are various laws in various jurisdictions for various kinds of products that give people the right to cancel after they have executed a purchase agreement. It may be the right to cancel a purchase of an encyclopedia from the door to door salesman, or the purchase of a time share, or the purchase of a condo, but it may or may not be the case with the property you are purchasing. First of all, let me comment on why people cancel.

People cancel due to "buyer's remorse." And what is buyer's remorse? Buyer's remorse is a buyers reaction to doing something which he was not sure was the right move. They make a decision and then they can't sleep all night to think about such things as, what is it really going to cost us, do we really want to live in that area, is this really the kind of product and the development that is for us.

The next day, the next week, the next month, it's not so much that they are not sure they don't want it, but they are just sure they don't know whether they want it or not, and so they have buyer's remorse and they cancel their purchase. Well, if you purchase properly and make your plan and do your research and negotiate your best deal, you are not going to have buyer's remorse, Therefore, the chances you will want to cancel are remote.

If the situation should arise in which you must cancel, I first want you to know that you cannot rely on some protective law that gives you the right to cancel. You may have a problem. Now whether you have the right to cancel or not depends on several things. It depends on what you are purchasing and where you are purchasing it, or what you are purchasing and where your primary residence is, and how you were solicited.

If you live in a state that requires out-of-state property to register before the developer has the right to solicit you in your state, then the advertisers of the property must agree to a certain set of restrictions that your state imposes. These restrictions can vary from state to state, but many states with such restrictions insist that if a property from out of your state solicits you and you purchase, you do have the right to cancel within a certain period of time.

However, at the same time I want to caution you that if you purchase that same property because you are driving down the road in the area of that property and saw an advertisement on a billboard and drove in there and purchased, you would not be covered or protected by your state's laws. 

If you want to find out what the requirements are and how the laws protect you on cancellation, then you can either contact an attorney in the location in which you are purchasing, or an attorney in the state in which you come from if you where solicited in that state.

To be continued