house dilemma with the sellers

Status
Not open for further replies.
Quote:
I'm really stuck in a rock and a hard place. this house purchase could really hurt my marriage if I decide not to pursue this short sale.

It may not seem like it now, but I think you are fortunate in getting a foretaste of things to come, provided you pay attention.

A house purchase is unlikely to be the biggest obstacle you will ever face....
49.gif
 
Originally Posted By: expat
This thread is really pumping my blood pressure, if I have a stroke Cutehumer, I'll sue you!

:)
crackmeup2.gif
crackmeup2.gif
crackmeup2.gif
crackmeup2.gif
crackmeup2.gif
crackmeup2.gif
crackmeup2.gif
crackmeup2.gif
 
Last edited:
The house is so beautiful (at least in the pictures), no wonder she love to own the house.

Think hard about make a loan of $28k to the seller so that you can close the deal and make your wife happy. $28k is a lot of money, but your marriage is priceless, no amount of money is worth to break up a marriage.
 
Today is the last day. My agent emailed me the extension last night at 11pm to close on or before 6/30. I never did email my agent to tell him to prepare it. He told me over the phone to put it in writing that I want an extension, in fact he told me twice on the phone to put it in writing for the two month extension. He emailed the extension after 11pm over anyway after waiting all night. lol. My wife told me that she wants to give them another two months with this 2 month addendum, if we don't get it, we don't get it. by then, the sellers will be 4 months behind in house payments minimum and the house will go in foreclosure. That's not only counting the short sale process they are applying for to. Adding two months does nothing for us if they are approved the short sale. If they are approved, our contract is invalid. So I need to have a serious talk to her again for the thousandth time about getting a lawyer. She thinks getting a lawyer means we won't get the house at all.
 
Last edited:
If you choose to sign this extension at all, don't allow for 30 June, the very last day of closing to achieve the tax credit. Allow four to six weeks extension only. Reason is what this same scenario you went through this week could reappear on/about 23 June, so insulate yourself and give yourself some extra time allowance.

Let me reiterate you need a lawyer to help guide you through this process at this time. Your rights are not being protected by anyone else. Any extensions, or addendums need to be reviewed by a lawyer licensed in your state. This is no longer a relatively simple sale that could be done without a lawyer, without repercussions. You are dealing with people of now questionable reputation who may not have the financial resources to back up their verbal or contractural promises. The lawyer will help guide you through this, and he should have no other interest or conflict in this transaction, to be effective on your behalf (meaning don't hire the title insurance lawyer as your representative). This lawyer should be hired on an hourly basis, to oversee your interests at all meetings and negotiations.
 
Last edited:
Everything happens for a reason. If you get screwed, I supposed lesson learned first hand. If the sale is lost, there will be other opportunities. Good luck. I hope this experience does not ruin your marrige. I speak from experience.

p.s. I still contend that suing your "multi-million dollar" agent should still be an option. I am sure he does not want to tarnish his reputation and it might be worth $28K to him to maintain it. The real estate business is based on reputation.
 
Just get the lawyer and tell the wife what's what. It will help her redirect her anger at you, and your team (lawyer plus you) can nail the sellers.

The band aid ripping off effect. Bad news is best delivered all at once.
 
And another thing, I bet your wife doesn't want you getting a lawyer because then your team will be 2 against 1, with 1 being her. She is in a serious state of denial. The lawyer can only help you and aside from costing a few hundred bucks not hinder. With other closings invariably happening for this $8k credit one may be hard to find, but don't let that stop you! Even a general purpose one can help prevent further decay while you come up with a better plan or he refers you to a RE specialist.
 
Completely unsolicited and probably unwelcome advice -

It might be a good idea to think about what is going on with you wife, and between the two of you. I would venture to say that the symptoms you are seeing aren't really about the house, it is something else.

And until that "it" is discovered and resolved, the last thing I would want to do is tie myself into ever bigger obligations with that person. We tend to try to remedy one mistake by correcting with an even bigger mistake in the same direction.

The previous owners of your house may have done that. Make sure you are not following exactly in their footsteps. If you are, it will probably end the same way.

The house won't remedy problems. If either of you believes that, you are badly mistaken, it will only make things worse - you will have even more pressures of all kinds. If you think things are bad now...
 
I have to agree 100% with TooManyWheels. There is something else going on here. Maybe loosing $30K will be cheaper then what is potentially coming down the road. A marriage is 2 people working together, not one with an agenda. In 43 years of marriage I have never had that kind of problem with my wife.

Good luck man, I'm praying for you.
 
I honestly don't know what else can be said that hasn't already been said.

I can say that in the event of a short sale the bank goes with the highest bidder. So you can get into a bidding war with the bank and other potential buyers.

I was warned this way ahead of time by my realtor. Her past experience was the bank nullify the agreement and going with the higher bidder because to them it is all about money. I don't know how but she said she saw it happen first hand.

You really don't need that 2 month addendum though, you had an agreement. The 28k is their responsibility not yours and they should be liquidating assets to cover it. Not passing it on...

Then again the realtors on both sides have insurance...and since they know their butts are on the line. The attorney could go after them for falsifying a legal contract and seek damages even if you don't get the house.

Personally I wouldn't sign a DAM N thing.
 
I can understand that part...we had to walk from a house that my wife really loved because of divorce issues similar to yours...

Since we started a family (hoping to add one more), it was perfect little ranch, and very kid friendly (a nice swing set, tire swing) along with a nice deck and a big garage. With their issues, it's really hard to say how it will turn out. Their mortage company (BOA) pretty much pulled the sale all by themselves (or it seemed) Granted, my thinking says that there was other issues there...In the end, we walked, out around 500 bucks(that still sucks). Wife was really [censored], and it took a few weeks for her to get over it. We've decided to take a whole year off, to get ready again, hopefully getting what we want this time. Lucky for us that we were still month 3 months before the end of our lease, and as much as it pains me to do it, I'm going to renew the lease for another year. I added a goal of being debt-free (or close), which should give us a chance to afford even a better house that we saw. (or maybe just a bigger down payment).We have a close knit family, anf that helped too. We're also taking a vacation to have some fun and relieve some stress. I hope that something works out for you, CH. It's hard when it is something that you want.
 
Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
So I need to have a serious talk to her again for the thousandth time about getting a lawyer. She thinks getting a lawyer means we won't get the house at all.



Have you explained to your wife the difference between hiring the lawyer to litigate a lawsuit and simply to review and consult on the current PA and addendums?

No one is saying that you start out of the gate by filing a lawsuit against everyone involved. The point is to hire an attorney at this point simply to review the current documents and to advise you how to move forward in your best interest. An attorney reviewing the documents now will prevent you from cutting your own throat later.

I know I sound like a broken record, but I wouldnt present any addendums to the Seller until my own attorney had reviewed ALL the paperwork involved here. I dont understand how your wife thinks she can make a wise decisionn when all her options aren't clearly understood. Hiring an attorney now for simple consultation will at least allow you to have a clear picture of what your potential options are....and it wont cost that much at all.
 
I haven't read through this thread entirely, so it may have already been mentioned, but to get the 8K credit you don't have to CLOSE by 4/30, you have to BE UNDER CONTRACT by 4/30. You have 60 days beyond that to close. technically, you ARE under contract.
 
A couple of things to keep in mind: First, in the interest of full disclosure- I am a Realtor. As many have told you here, Realtors, Lawyers, car salesmen, dealerships are scum of the earth, and there has never been an honest one in any of those professions. So take what i have to say with a grain of salt. Though I never met the Realtors involved, nor do I know anyone in Tn, I may be giving information to "cover" the people involved. Sort of an "honor among thieves" sort of thing, you know.
I learned long ago there is a difference between right or wrong and legal and illegal (I told that to a judge once and was released from jury duty. Many years ago we were in McDonalds in orlando. My son slipped on some water on the floor and broke his arm. Bill was $300. Missed part of his vacation, was in pain etc. After getting out of the doctors I called McDonalds and asked them to cover the Dr.s bill. I didn't want anything else. They refused, and blew me off. I contacted a lawyer. He told me that unless I could prove McDonalds was negligent (knew about the spill and did't clean it up) I was SOL. He explained that if it were a banana peel for example, if it was a fresh peel ne could argue it was recent. if it was old and black you might have a chance to claim they ignored it.
 
First thing I would do is read your contract closely. Unless it says "Time is of the Essence" in regards to the closing date, then April 30 is not a drop dead date. Happens all the time. What is considered a reasonable can be determined by a judge.
The seller has to supply warrantable title. The seller can claim they are working on it, trying to do a short sale.
As far as the 8K, the agents and seller can argue you haven't lost that until they can't close in 60 days. if you walk, I think you may forfeit that claim.
As far as losses over 30 years because you lose your interest rate-get real. Not gonna happen. The only losses you can arguably claim are out of pocket expenses.
If the seller can't close, they will probably walk away from the house. They are getting divorced anyways, so rather than lose 28k they will take the dump on their credit and file bankruptcy.
If you sue the sellers and it goes to jury trial, what do you think your odds are that a jury, seeing this family split and lose their home, will award you a big judgement?
You can sue the Realtors. When I present an offer, beforehand I check the legal records to see what is owed on the home and how that lines up with the selling price. Could be though, the second mortgage was added recently and didn't make its way into the records, of the excess is fees and penalties. Either way, don't count on the E&O insurance rolling over for anything more that out of pocket expenses.
Sorry, but right and wrong aren't always the same as legal ind illegal.
The only option you have at this point is to walk away and eat your losses, or stick with it in hopes of a short sale within the 60 days. If it goes beyond the 60 days, try to negotiate another 8k off.
But what do I know?
 
Originally Posted By: Studebaker
First thing I would do is read your contract closely. Unless it says "Time is of the Essence" in regards to the closing date, then April 30 is not a drop dead date. Happens all the time. What is considered a reasonable can be determined by a judge.
The seller has to supply warrantable title. The seller can claim they are working on it, trying to do a short sale.
As far as the 8K, the agents and seller can argue you haven't lost that until they can't close in 60 days. if you walk, I think you may forfeit that claim.
As far as losses over 30 years because you lose your interest rate-get real. Not gonna happen. The only losses you can arguably claim are out of pocket expenses.
If the seller can't close, they will probably walk away from the house. They are getting divorced anyways, so rather than lose 28k they will take the dump on their credit and file bankruptcy.
If you sue the sellers and it goes to jury trial, what do you think your odds are that a jury, seeing this family split and lose their home, will award you a big judgement?
You can sue the Realtors. When I present an offer, beforehand I check the legal records to see what is owed on the home and how that lines up with the selling price. Could be though, the second mortgage was added recently and didn't make its way into the records, of the excess is fees and penalties. Either way, don't count on the E&O insurance rolling over for anything more that out of pocket expenses.
Sorry, but right and wrong aren't always the same as legal ind illegal.
The only option you have at this point is to walk away and eat your losses, or stick with it in hopes of a short sale within the 60 days. If it goes beyond the 60 days, try to negotiate another 8k off.
But what do I know?


Very valid points.

I spoke with three lawyers. the title attorney lawyer doing our closing that I summarized earlier and two other lawyers. One lawyer told me "why are you seeing me, you have an attorney at the title company!" well anyway, we talked for 30 minutes about my situation. here's the summary. I told him, sellers are defaulting on our contract. We will lose the $8k buyer credit if they don't close with us, we have nowhere to live after 5/30, I will have to pay expenses for $400 appraisal, lose $375 in home inspection, higher interest rate-to extend my lock past 5/10 I will have to pay $1500 for 30 extra days for rate lock!, I will have to pay a higher month to month apartment rent, and the sellers want us to sign this short sale affadavit and extension for them to get a 28k bank note to pay off for closing costs.

He said if we have nowhere to live after 5/30, we could move into the house, then work out details of the short sale later, and live mortgage free for awhile to recoup lost money. I don't feel comfortable with this. The bank could say we damaged the property in some way if we don't get the house and we would have to move twice.

Then he said since the sellers are divorcing, their assets will be tied up in divorce court, and he said "do you really think a bank would give a $28K bank note to the sellers, if they are divorcing!" he said if we did pursue legal action against the sellers, it would be a long drawn out process, that could take a year, and this is a complicated case, and if sellers do file bankruptcy, we get nothing. So he recommended the best option for us would be to get our earnest money back and move on. He said mentally and emotionally to walk away. I asked him if we could sue the E & O insurance that the agents carry, he said by the time we got to court in a year. It would be hard to prove what the seller's agent knew or my agent knew about the seller's short sale status. He said, it would be a "he said, she said" scenario. he recommened either walk away, cut my loses, or stick with the short sale and discount the price of the 8k buyer credit, and other costs I will lose. he said, it's the only fair option for us. The other lawyer pretty much said the same thing. If I discount the home say $30k, there's no guarantee the bank will take our reduced offer. So...what I end up doing, after talking to lawyers, my wife, and agent...


We signed an amendment to extend our contract to "close on or before 6/30". We sent that at 830am. My agent has not contacted me if the sellers have signed it and it's almost 330pm CST and today is the last day. I will call my agent shortly if I don't hear anything soon. I figure an extension is the only thing that will keep me from losing a ton of money especially if a miracle happens that the sellers get a bank note to pay the $28k difference within two months.
 
Actually, there is another option for the seller. Get the bank to forgive 28K of the debt. That's what happens in most short sales. The agents need to convince the mortgage company that the price offered is all it will bring in the market (by doing a CMA).
Is the mortgage all with one lender, or is there a second? If there is a second, it will be easier as they risk getting nothing if it gets foreclosed on and a deal can be made.
I am not so sure today is the last day. You have a contract in place. Modifying it after the fact doesn't actually make it invalid. The contract isn't changing, just the closing date and as long as it closes in the 60 days, you'll be okay.
Mortgage companies are real slow to act.
 
Last edited:
I just got a text. The sellers signed our extension agreement so our buyer credit is safe for now. It's unclear if the husband in Arizona signed it. I texted to find out and I asked my agent to email it to me.

The mortgage is a home equity line of credit through suntrust. The house was paid off in 2008 and that's when they did a home equity line of credit for the full value of the house. I didn't know this until the short sale stuff came up.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top