We made a passing mention of Olive8 pre-sale buyers walking away from their deposits in the condo sales status project post (which is still being compiled, by the way), and a week or so ago the Seattle Times posted a story about buyers at Olive8 and elsewhere walking away.
On Saturday local entrepreneur Andy Liu posted his personal story of walking away from Olive8: My $23,750 Mistake at Olive 8
A couple years back in 2006, I made the decision to put down a deposit pre-sale for one of the new condo projects in Seattle. In retrospect, it turned out to be a big mistake. Although I haven’t yet walked away from the deal yet since the closing date is still a few weeks away, it is almost certain that I will walk and lose my earnest money in the deal which totals $23,750. Although I’ve read about folks who are trying to get some of their earnest money back, in my mind, a deal is a deal, and I lost so I won’t be pursuing any of the earnest money. It’s a bummer, but I’m here to share my lessons learned.
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Part of me just wants to go ahead with the purchase because I had already committed $23,750 to it, but it makes no logical sense. I’m only amplifying the mistake and hoping to hit a homerun to recover that mistake. Instead of amplifying the mistake, I need to let it go. Once you’ve realized you made a mistake, learn from it and move on, there are plenty of opportunities tomorrow.
This is a great writeup by Andy. I really appreciate him sharing his story. If you’re interested in getting a look at what’s going on inside the head of people that are making the tough decisions in the market right now, you should definitely read the whole thing.