Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Wisconsin

Whether or not a potential buyer can walk away from any offer (including a short sale) will depending upon the exact language in the offer regarding various deadlines and dates for closing, and other critical events. Not having seen your accepter offer to purchase contract, I have no idea how your attorney drafted it and what contingencies may have been built in for the short sale approval by the bank. However, you say that they have roughly another week so, meaning that some deadline obviously has not yet passed. While you may be able to walk away prior to that, you would probably lose your earnest money and the seller would indeed also have the option of suing you for specific performance. Whether or not you wait for that date to pass, canceling out of an offer and getting your earnest money back can be tricky and should be done only under careful supervision by your attorney. I am not your attorney and will not be taking any action on your case, but you are still welcome to contact me during business hours at my in Racine if you still have more questions. Also, please see me on the web at www.jayknixonlaw.com. If you would like to read 15 years of my prior answers to consumer legal questions arranged by topic, please go to http://www.lawguru.com/answers/search/attorney/jknixon.