WoooooooooooooooooooooHooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Fresh Start!

I highly recommend contacting a real estate attorney. I’m not in a position to provide referrals, but there are attorneys who have worked with buyers at Olive 8, Washington Square and Veer Lofts. If you review the Olive 8 posting on this blog, you’ll be able to obtain their contact information in the comments section. I’m not sure if there were any buyer suits at Brix, which also experienced delays, but you might want to check that out since it was built by the same developer.

I am a buyer here. I love the project and think it will be great.

I was preapproved 2 years ago by First Horizon.. which is now MetLife. I put down the required 5% earnest money.

Since then, as is obvious, things are different. Lenders are requiring 10% down and credit is tight. Again, obvious obvious obvious stuff.

I still qualify with 5% down by lending standards as they are today, but I cannot come up with the other 5% right now as we approach closing.

If I am unable to find financing for the unit that I was preapproved for 2 years ago by then First Horizon, does my 5% earnest money come back to me? Does my earnest money come back to me if the project keeps getting delayed? It has been 3 times now that my anticipated closing has changed and I have never received a statement from Equinox asking me for permission to accept the delay again, again, again. Does this break contract? Does my earnest money come back to me?

I guess I am looking for some help and am curious if anybody else out there is experiencing the same issue with options and earnest money, contract questions?

Does anyone know any answers here? Any buyers from Equinox? Similar questions, thoughts? Anybody?

Thanks and if anyone knows a real estate attorney who is familiar with/working on a case at Equinox, please PASS ON!

Thank you for any help or expertise..

I am very interested in this project however.

As far as freeway noise, sound does travel upwards, not down, so I disagree that it will be bothersome. And yes, some of us do enjoy city living and EVERYTHING that comes with it. This project is going to be great in my opinion. Units that FACE the freeway, maybe not. Those that face Lake Union, Queen Anne Hill, the Aurora Bridge, the Space Needle, Gasworks Park, the Skyline, yes they will be amazing.

If it’s not your cup of tea, then don’t drink it.

Oh, and you forgot to mention all the wonderful noise of 10 maybe 12 lanes of I-5 right in your backyard.

As far as earnest money, it’ll depend greatly on the purchase and sale contract. Different developments will have different language in respects to the earnest money, completion time frames, etc. This is a question that I’ll defer to a real estate attorney.

As for holding up closings until a certain level of sales are achieved, that is likely. The question is what percentage it’ll be at…it may not necessarily be 70%.

I guess I don’t understand the implications here. If a buyer of a unit at Equinox put down $20,000 earnest money and is essentially “locked in” to buy, what are his/her choices? I understand that the money is “non-recoverable,” but what does this new information in regards to changes in guidelines mean from a legal standpoint for the buyer? And for closing purposes, does this mean that closing will be put off until 70% of the units are sold at Equinox (currently 30%)?

Ben, if you can please help clear this confusion it would be great. There are a few people that I know who are very confused as to what is transpiring at Equinox and what their options are or are going to be.

Any inide info. helps a lot!

Thanks..