Builders prevent quick sale after close of escrow

[jyeh74]

Do certain builders prevent owners from reselling a house after they close escrow for a certain amount of years?  I heard a friend saying that some builder (can't remember who) doesn't allow you to sell for at least 2 years.  I didn't know if they can do that in the contract.

 

[ps99472]

How can they do that?  Like qwerty would say:  I paid you a shitload of money, take it, and stay out of my finances!  Some lenders do have some clauses if you finance the home as primary home.. you have to stay there a certain amount of time before you can take on another primary residence qualified loan.  But that's geared toward flipper abuse.

 

[Meggie]

I think builders did that during the housing boom to prevent flippers from getting priority over home owners.  No builder that I am aware of is doing it currently. 

 

[Ready2Downsize]

Builders did it at the peak of the market in 1989 too but it didn't prevent everyone from trying it anyway. Some got caught in the downturn and were foreclosed on hurting the rest of us.

I don't know what recourse was available anyway once escrow was closed.

 

[gasman]

I've seen clauses like this in the past, but in reality there's no real way to enforce it.  Also, builders don't make it a habit to stay in touch with buyers after close of escrow, so unless they have an army of cheap labor tracking listings/sales of their properties built within the last 2 years, there's little chance anything like this will stick.

The only real reason a 2-year clause applies to a sale is to avoid short term real estate gains taxes, where you get the $200k exemption after 2 years, but this has zero to do with the builder.

 

[bones]

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