What does a right of first refusal mean?

[desperatelyseek]

What is the name of your state? New York

The property I was going to purchase has a right of first refusal on it. I have an attorney but don't really think I am getting any advice. The right does not not have any termination date and the house is already 29 years old. Is this a discrepancy that could void a contract?

[CraigFL]

It just means that someone has a standing offer on it and before any other offer(yours) is accepted by the seller, this person has the right to buy the home(if of course their offer is accepted by the seller over yours).

[desperatelyseek]

does anyone know though if this would make a contract void in any way then? It was not disclosed prior to contracts and I lost my downpayment because I backed out of contract.

[nextwife]

You didn't necessarilly have to back out.; Sometimes the ROFR isn't even known until the title search is done, and nobody exercises it, and the deal proceeds to closing with no problem. I've seen, for example, a ROFR of a land split selling lake property next door. The land splitter wanted the right to someday potentially buy the adjacent lot, so they stuck a ROFR into the sale deed of the land spli which would have allowed them to match any offer and buy themselves, instead. Forty years later, the house was sold, and the ROFR discovered and shown in the title report. The ROFR was waived, or "insured over".

It is also very common for condo associations to have a ROFR in the original bylaws. The condo association usually waives.. The owner may not actually know of the ROFR, but that is WHJY title insurance is done- to show those things.

So, what happened? Did the ROFR holder bump your offer and exercise their right? Or did they simply do what most do, and waive it?

I'm confused about why the mere existence of a ROFR caused you to back out? I see deals close all the time where the title company search revealed a ROFR, nobody exercised the right, and the deal went to closing with no delays.

[desperatelyseek]

it did not make us back out of the deal other situations did, I was just wondering if this was a way that we could have not lost our downpayment.