Michael Mixon wrote:I recently had a REA explain to me that in Texas you have a 10 day option to cancel the contract. He did not imply any extra "option fee" for this. Was he misleading me? He was trying very hard to get my business, and I can see someone in that position just telling me what I want to hear. Or was he talking about something different?
I have no way of knowing for sure what you and some other real estate agent were discussing and I would certainly not say that the agent was intentionally trying to mislead you. It's a lot of information to convey and there's always the opportunity for mis-communication to occur. Were you by chance discussing an REO property? Those come with separate bank generated addendums that override a large part of the original TREC contract that you start with. Most times the REO addendums grant a free "Inspection Period" of 5-7 days and make it really easy to terminate the contract during that time and have your earnest money returned. The different banks use different addendums, so you have to carefully read them and understand the slightly different provisions and notifications required to be followed by the Buyer in order to terminate the contract.
For non-REO property, the Termination Option Fee in Section 23 of the TREC contract is just a negotiable "nominal consideration", often times $50-$100 for a 5-10 day period of time and that gives you the option of terminating the contract for ANY REASON AT ALL.
Time is of the essence on those provisions, so make sure you strictly follow the allowed time periods or else be prepared to forfeit your earnest money.
