Delays Damage Seller - Recourse?

I hope someone out there can give me some direction. Many thanks to all who take the time to look over my story. Any help will be much appreciated!

Background

This spring, I decided to sell my condo near San Francisco (I currently live in SW Washington and have been renting out the condo for the last two years). In April, I gave my tenant the option of staying in the condo while upgrades/improvements were done and potential buyers viewed the property, or moving out. He moved out as of May 1, and I proceeded with two months' of improvements, finally putting it on the market in July.

On September 1, 2006, I received an offer requesting a "kickback" of $10,000 from the $387,000 asking price, to enable the buyer to cover closing costs. I accepted this offer on September 1. It is now October 17 and the deal is still not finalized.

Issues

1. The buyer's agent apparently went on vacation when the contingency release was due, and did not file the appropriate papers until the release was more than a week late. During this time, the buyer's agent could not be reached and no one in the buyer's agent's office knew anything about the matter.

2. As mentioned earlier, before putting the condo on the market, I spent two months (and several thousand dollars) doing improvements and upgrades. In addition, I have been paying the mortgages on both my homes since May 1, 2006. During this time, I have used up all my savings, have sold stocks, have maxed out my credit cards, and have borrowed money from family, to get the condo sold.

Due to the expenses I have incurred since May 1, the September 1 condo mortgage went unpaid in anticipation of the finalization of the sale. Thirty days passed and my condo mortgage holder notified the credit reporting agencies of my delinquency.

The October 1 condo mortgage went unpaid in anticipation of finalization of the sale. This too, has been reported.

My former credit score of 743 is now 618 and dropping quickly.

The October 1 mortgage on my current home went unpaid in anticipation of the sale of the condo, and remains due as of this date. This delinquency will be reported on October 31, 2006.

Since September 1, I have also been unable to pay several other outstanding bills, and am now reduced to counting quarters out of my change bucket for gas money, due to the delay in finalizing this sale.

3. On October 12, my agent received an Extension of Time Addendum from the buyer's agent, requesting an extension until October 20th to finalize the deal (the Addendum was signed by the buyer on October 11). Because it is so difficult to sell a home in the current market, and because I had a buyer when many others do not, I reluctantly approved the extension on October 12, 2006.

4. Throughout this process, the buyer's agent has not attempted to update my agent in any reasonable fashion, and has been nearly impossible for my agent to reach. Increasingly urgent requests for updates have gone ignored. The buyer's agent blames her faulty phone message system for not staying in regular contact with my agent.

5. This morning, my agent called me to read a letter he had just received from the buyer's agent. The letter was dated October 12, 2006 (the day AFTER her client had signed the Extension of Time Addendum request).

It said that the buyer had encountered an unexplained "emergency" in September and had withdrawn money from the escrow-type account upon which his bank loan was predicated. As I understand it, the lending bank required the buyer to have several months' worth of funding in place to cover mortgage and PMI payments (or something to that effect), and the buyer used a significant portion of those funds, supposedly without telling his agent.

Last week, in preparation for finalizing the deal and funding the buyer's loan, his lender did a quality check on those funds, and found them insufficient.

The buyer's real estate agency agreed to cover the missing funds; however the buyer's lending bank would not accept this, forcing the buyer to seek funding elsewhere (using the RE agency's money as if it were his own).

The letter did not mention the October 20th drop-dead date for finalization of the deal, but promised to "have the matter resolved within about a week, quickly and to everyone's satisfaction." Once again, this letter was dated October 12, and was received October 17 by my agent - three days before I am supposed to be paid - but does not mention the October 20th drop-dead date nor does it offer any other date certain for finalization.

Because the buyer and agent have repeatedly broken their contract with me and have done me grave damage in the process, do I have the right to sue the buyer, the buyer's agent, and/or the agency that employs her?

To whom do I make formal complaints about this matter (is there a Real Estate Ethics Board, or somesuch)?

If the sale does not go through, can I recoup any money for my current financial losses?

During the seven weeks this fiasco has been going on, the market has continued to soften and I can no longer get $387,000 for the property. Can I recoup any money for the loss in value of the property if I have to put it back on the market?

Is it possible to restore my credit rating through some legal process?

Once again, many MANY thanks for your time and advice. . . .[/quote]

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