And now it's dead again
After all this time, having two close dates and everything ironed out, the sellers accepted a new contract and we're left standing here going what the heck happened? 187 days WASTED!
Been the buyers in a short sale since Jan. 11th. And we're getting down to the end of it. We got an extension on the close from last month and we were supposed to close on the 27th-11 days from now. 6 months wasted into this and we messed it all up! We asked the sellers to fill the porpane tank so we could get a full inspection done, we even said when the sale closes, we would pay back half. So guess what they did? They got a new offer and accepted it over the weekend and we're screwed! 6 months gone and wasted and wow do we feel stupid and taken advantage of! The new buyer gets to step right in and take over without having to wait for anything. The approval is all done, they just get to do nothing and they get the house we have dreamed about since Jan.
It's so unfair and I am so hating everyone involved! All we wanted was a little bit of help because of all the bad stuff the sellers did, they were eating up all our cash. All we wanted was them to put propane in we were going to pay them back even and this is what we get???? So not fair!
SHORT SALES SUCK!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Smitty on
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I think what sucks is your agent. What happened to your contract? Why didn't you do your inspection at the BEGINNING of the transaction? Why did you wait until approval time? Your agent should have advised you of all this. Why is it the sellers can even ACCEPT another contract? Wouldn't they be in breach of YOUR CONTRACT? Did you contract stipulate the seller was to pay for gas for the tank for an inspection? Did your contract stipulate that if you didn't perform your inspection the contract was null and void? Right now you could have an awesome tortious interference case, but that's not up to me..it's up to a lawyer. Where the heck was your agent through this??? protecting your interests?
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Permalink Reply by Sharon Stine on
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How exactly would it be our agents fault? He forwarded us everything he got. Apparently the seller agent didn't think we needed to know she had accepted another offer. Why would we inspect at the beginning of the sale? We knew it would take 4 or 5 months at least and the owners could have (AND DID) do a lot of damage? Why would we want to wait till the last minute? And then risk walking into a destroyed house? Not sure how they were able to accept another contract. We were trying to get an extension and apparently our contract had expired. Not sure exactly, but that is what we were told. We're not clear on this yet. The contract did not necessarily stipulate anything about the propane. Nor did it stipulate the sellers couldn't remove 4 ceiling fans and a light fixture over the stove, nor did it say they couldn't dig up 23 bushes shrubs and trees out of the yard, but they all of that and more! I guess we assumed that the the sellers would be operate in good faith and not cause us more and more and more out of pocket money so at the end we felt paying for half of the propane was fair. Our contract was for as is condition. I assume as is means at the time the contract was signed. We did not take as is to mean they could trash the place and we would still take the house. If as-is meant it was ok for the sellers to burn the place to the ground, I don't think the term would be used. The sellers were intent on causing undo trouble and have stretched the letter of the contract since the very beginning. There is no sense in blaming our agent. He did the best he could do given what information he had.
This is just a bad short sale and I don't think it was ever going to close.
I did get some good news this afternoon. The new offer was declined by the investor and now they have to start the whole process over from the beginning. Which also tells me they have had their back up offer into the bank for a lot longer than just today.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Payne on
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@Sharon, I tend to agree with Smitty here. Your agent, on the surface, didn't seem to stay on top of this short sale. Your contract should have never expired and your agent should have known when it was expiring.
Now on to the other items..... yes many buyers do their inspections up front and it is advised to do such. What would have happened if you were 6 months into the short sale and got approval and then performed the home inspection and found something wrong with the house and you had to cancel? Granted the sellers are supposed to maintain the property in the same condition that it was in when you made the offer and if they don't then it is on them to make it right or risk losing the sale. It can go both ways...
As far a shrubs, and 4 ceiling fans, all I would say is that if I were purchasing a short sale I would most likely expect that items like that would be missing (even though they should be there if they were included in the sale) and I would then replace them if I really wanted the house.
I believe Smitty is on to something with the interference of the contract but also believe it would be hard to get a court to rule in your favor.
Might be best to move on.... this time PLEASE have your agent prequalify the listing to make sure that it is a viable option as a short sale and think about doing inspections up front to make sure the house will work for you.
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I have to say, I'm really not sure what went wrong with the contract expiring. I looked at our copy of the extension and I can't even read the dates on it. I agree, our agent should have been on that, but I suspect the seller agent deliberately (and I do know she's not obligated) didn't say anything and she jumped at the chance to get a back up offer in. I believe the sellers were looking for a way out of our contract as soon as we got upset that they took things from the house. (and wrecked the moving van into the garage and displaced the roof-the list goes on and on) I also believe we are too naive and too good hearted for a any more short sales. I think we've seen about the worst people can be during this. Theft, lies, vandalism, deception, back stabbing, low life, underhanded dealings. It's too much and I will not get involved in another short sale again. I learned how bad people can be and I learned that good things don't really happen to good people.
I believe we did our best and we did the right thing in this and that we got taken for a lousy six month ride of getting slapped in the face and I'm sorry we tried.
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@Sharon, I hate that this happened to you for sure. Not all short sales are like this one... The listing agent is the vital part of the short sale and the buyer agent is also extremely important. It is so very crucial that your agent pre screen and pre qualify every short sale that you want to look at. The listing agent history and success, the lender, investor, second mortgage, liens, etc...... you have to know all of this going in as a buyer agent/buyer to be able to decide if the short sale is something that is possible. An experience buyer agent will be able to see the red flags if there are any and will be able to advise you.
I can only assume that you do not feel like you were getting a very good deal on the house or didn't feel like you received any sort of discount from non distressed listings based on your other posts..... otherwise a few thousand in repairs would not be a big deal.
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Thanks, I really do appreciate that. We knew going into this it was going to be rough. We thought we were getting a good deal and we had no intention of dropping out. We were just waiting to tie up the details and we wanted them to pay for the propane. In fact, they told us on Friday they were going to come up with some kind of plan to pay for it so we were fine. So this all came out of the blue. It was just under handed.
and the reason why the propane was an issue was because we were worried they had done something to or they knew there was a problem with the furnace so that it would need to be replace. We added up all the money it was going to cost to fix this, repair that, remove that, correct that, pay for this and then adding up our closing costs on top of all that and we were getting well over $25000! CASH! And we REALLY didn't see a problem with asking them to pay half the propane. I guess we were stupid and should have just ate another $500, but there went our notion of fair...after all the the other costs they were making us eat. I guess we just pushed them too far.
Our agent told us up front it was going to be a long battle. And he did point out the red flags as much as he could. He was totally blind sided when he found out about the other offer too. I really like him and I will forever say that he did the best he could do under the circumstances.
The sellers agent was going to make Shorts her "specialty". I heard thru the grapevine that this sale killed that for her. And it has been so bad on her that she had to go the doctor for medication so she could deal with the stress. I can only imagine what it was like having to deal personally with the sellers in this case.
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Sharon, that is why it is so critical that they buyer agent prescreen the listing and the listing agent... Sounds like this listing agent has little or even no short sale experience and you should have been advised to probably not bother with this listing. Just curious how you get to $25,000 in ceiling fans, propane and landscaping? How much was your offer?
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We had two loans for closing so double closing costs. We knew that was going to happen, so we were budgeted in.
From the contract, we knew we were going to have to replace all the curtains and the washer and dryer as well and treat the pool, change locks...that kind of stuff... $4500 at least. That was fine.
These were some of the "surprise" costs that popped up.
Propane $500
Fix roof damage $1500
Replace refrigerator $1500
Remove debris $75
Replace 4 ceiling fans $600
Replace fixture over the cooktop $1500
Correct landscaping, $150 (we were just going to fill in holes) or
Replace landscaping $500
Replace broken window $200
Clean yard $200.
That's over $10000 that would have to come out within the first month. After having pay all closing costs and those related expenses. And that didn't count our down payment either.
We offered 275,000 the house was valued more at 325,000
Obviously we were buying with our hearts and not for the equity. The place a perfect for our needs thou.
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sharon you just outlined for me why you should have done the inspection up front. Had you known about these issues up front, you could have adjusted your offer into the lender and also provided the inspection report.
If the house was valued at $325,000 and you add up all the things you just highlighted PLUS your offer, you are still getting a heck of a deal.
Again though the point is WHERE was your buyers agent protecting you through this? Why can the sellers just back out? Something is NOT right.
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I beg to differ. This was the list of stuff the sellers did SINCE we signed the contract. If we had done the inspection early, we wouldn't have known about any of that till final walk thru. Actually, that's not true. They did most of this stuff when they moved out in mid March. We stopped by and noticed the outside stuff after that and we demanded to see inside and we discovered the rest. So having the inspection early would have been detrimental in this case. Perhaps the best solution would be to have one done at both times.
I do agree, it was a good deal and thus another reason we are heart broken. I really don't know what our agent could have done? I do agree then contract lapse wasn't good. But otherwise, none of the other stuff could he have prevented.
I am being told the other offer was cash and completely as is, no questions asked.
I am finding it more and more annoying to think the seller agent was allowing us and leading us thru the transaction without a contract. That's deceptive and wrong.
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The question is.. what is your agent doing about it? Has your agent contacted the listing agents broker? What state are you in? Does your contract actually expire on a the short sale or does it take signatures to cancel? I can assure you that if I were your agent, you would not be left with unanswered questions...
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They sent a release for us to sign, but we have not signed it. We sent them a message saying we are not signing anything until we seek legal counsel. Which I don't think we're going to do. We also want the two banks involved to sign off that the new buyers are allowed to step in. But that took care of it's self since the investor declined the offer so they will have to start all over anyway.
I think the best thing for us is to walk away.
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