The law isn't exactly the same from one state to the next, and I don't practice in South Carolina.  For advice you can rely on, you need to have an attorney in your area review all of the facts of the case.  One place to find a qualified lawyer is our website, http://attorneypages.comThe big problem here is that the contract didn't have your name on it at all;  if the deal had gone through, it's entirely possible that your "X" would have gotten the property only in his name as well.  I hope you'll avoid this whole problem if the situation ever comes up again.Probably, the thing to do here is to file one lawsuit, against both your X and the real estate company.  Somebody owes you $25,000.00, between the two of them, and if you're lucky you might be able to get a judgment against both of them.  This would be good because it shouldn't be hard to collect from the real estate company, and that would leave them to try and get the money back from X.