My wife and I are in the process of selling our house. We've had a couple of offers, the first of which fell through because the buyer pulled out after 2 days (hadn't even done a pest and building inspection.... )

Anyway, our real estate agent brought us a new offer from potential buyers who needed to sell their property first to enable them to buy our home. A bit of to-ing and fro-ing later, a contract was drawn up, with a clause that said the sale of our house was conditional on the buyers getting an unconditional contract on their house in 4 weeks time.... or so we thought.

We signed the contract, after being reassured by our agent that the sale would go unconditional after 4 weeks, and then we'd have 6 weeks after that until settlement. The latter stipulation we were very clear about - it enables us to find a new home without having to store furniture and rent (if possible).

Anyway, after we signed we found out a few things:

(1) The buyers had made the offer two weeks before we were shown it - they asked our agent to wait to show us it so that they had more time to sell their house, and he did. I thought the selling agent was meant to do the best he could for the vendor...

(2) The agent screwed up the clause - our solicitor tells us that the way the clause is worded means that, in fact, the sellers can legally pull out of the sale right up to and including the day of settlement! We could have the removalist there, a rental contract signed, and the bank ready to transfer the mortgage, and the whole thing could fall through.

That our real estate agent is a moron is clear, and at first I was very "annoyed" at him (my wife and I asked him to confirm 5 different times that the clause said what we wanted it to say before we signed it, and each time he confirmed it).

However, upon further reflection it is clear that it is I who is the moron for trusting the word of a non-legal specialist on the meaning of a clause in a legal document.

I'm sure most of you know this already, but never, ever, ever, sign anything, no matter how much you trust the person or feel pressured to do so, without getting legal advice first. Even if the person is not trying to deliberately screw you over, there is every chance they are complete incompetents and do not know it. There's no-one else to blame but yourself if you don't.

For my wife and I it's not the end of the world. But we've learned a valuable lesson that will never be forgotten.

James.