Share your closing tips/tricks/horror stories
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Anonymous
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Has anyone had a seller walk? Just kill the deal "for no reason, don't wanna sell now" after all the contingencies were dropped but before settlement?
We are looking at that situation now with some consistently difficult sellers. |
Anonymous
If you want the house badly enough and the contingenies were removed, you can sue them for performance of contract I think. |
Anonymous
Yup, specific performance. |
Anonymous
Yes, had that happen. Had to hire an expensive pit bull of a lawyer who got them to settle. Worth every penny in the end, he was great! |
Anonymous
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Attorney here (formerly RE attorney in private practice)...
can't tell you how many times we had people come to us with SIGNED contracts ... folks, it's too late at that point to find and address any number of things (we had various clauses we used dep. on whether we represented buyer or seller, each naturally favoring our client within the bounds of the law, of course). Hire your RE lawyer BEFORE you sign a contract and have them review & advise on contracts before you sign ... than advise at closing. Once you sign a contract, at least as to those terms your negotiating room is gone/very limited. |
Anonymous
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^^^
oops, typo... should read "... then advise at closing...." |
Anonymous
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The seller did not attend our closing. They were too busy according to their agent. We were handed pre signed papers by the agent.
Title company told me after the agent left he does that at all his closings as an intimidation factor. What a bunch of jerks. |
Anonymous
| So that seller doesn't attend closings for any of the houses he sells? Or that agent doesn't have any of his sellers attend closings? |
Anonymous
| The agent instructs the sellers not to attend. Our seller was not there, just his agent. They had pre signed the papers that am. It just strikes me as needlessly unfriendly. I have bought and sold several properties and this just struck me the wring way. |
Anonymous
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I don't care if they physically attend the closing, as long as they signed and signed off on all the HUD and other docs, we review and we're good to go!
I was traveling for work on my first condo's sale, and for our SFH, my husband and I were tired of taking off of work for inspections, etc so why to sign documents we already reviewed and negotiated on the good faith estimate and HUD form. As for sellers balking at that late a stage, their realtors should know they are prone to being sued and kicked out. Losing proposition indeed, unless there was some sort of death or terrible event. |
Anonymous
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I used being prepared to walk as a negotiating tool on our last sale. We were out of the house and renting. Buyer was committed to move out of her house and leveraged up the wazoo on her purchase (her new mortgage was going to be more than twice ours).
Her asshole RE agent raised an issue about moisture in the basement and started making noises about wanting more than $3k for remediation. I told her the house is sound, we are hiding nothing and for $3k we will walk away with their deposit. They did not know we were not going to not close; but we were also not going to be held up. I told her client (speaking to the buyer directly and ignoring the agent) that there is nothing to hide, we have had nothing but minor issues in 19 yrs., and that there are 2 types of RE agents: deal makers and deal breakers. And it sounds like your agent here is more of a deal breaker (this tool was posturing and preening, not serving her client particularly well). I told buyer we have reduced our price, we have agreed to pick up some of your closing costs, and we are at the point where we are done agreeing to concessions if you want a good house, which this is. So .. no $3,000.... $900 take it or leave it and I am prepared to go home to our rented house and have another open house this weekend. The buyer agreed, gave her RE agent looks that could kill, and we signed and finished. I told our RE agent on the way out that I was not going to kill the deal but I was fed up with the unprofessional other RE agent and decided to freeze her and let her client decide whether we had a deal or not. Our RE agent chuckled and said she understood why I teach negotiation technique as one small part of my work portfolio. Never heard a peep from the buyer about any problem and we doubt she even spent our $900... Moral: you never know what you don't know; don't let your know-it-all bitch/asshole of a RE agent kill your deal while they're prancing for you showing how tough they are. |
Anonymous
i just sold my home, and we did not attend closing. i didn't know this would be offensive to the buyer. i've bought 3 times now, and i've never seen the sellers. anyway, the buyer's agent chose a title company in freaking leesburg, and we live in vienna and have a newborn. no way i'd drive 40 min each way. the buyers are even further away, so i can't imagine they didn't understand our case. |
Anonymous
| We sold some land to a local builder who, the day before closing which happened to also be the last day of the calendar year, said that their financing had fell through but they could still settle except they could only pay x.xx for the land which was about 25% less than the agreed upon price. We were already taking a loss on the sale and wanted the sale to go through in that particular year to offset an earlier gain, which the builder didn't know but perhaps guessed that we had a strong desire to settle before the year was up. Our RE agent went nuts and somehow with the help of the office broker got the Ahole builder to settle on time at the agreed upon price. I saw one of his signs for some new homes being built the other day and couldn't help but wonder if he is still pulling that crap when he buys land. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous wrote:The agent instructs the sellers not to attend. Our seller was not there, just his agent. They had pre signed the papers that am. It just strikes me as needlessly unfriendly. I have bought and sold several properties and this just struck me the wring way. i just sold my home, and we did not attend closing. i didn't know this would be offensive to the buyer. i've bought 3 times now, and i've never seen the sellers. anyway, the buyer's agent chose a title company in freaking leesburg, and we live in vienna and have a newborn. no way i'd drive 40 min each way. the buyers are even further away, so i can't imagine they didn't understand our case There is nothing wrong with this. |