Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Real Estate
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 03-05-2020, 10:20 AM
 
657 posts, read 698,034 times
Reputation: 2074

Advertisements

The following situation is NOT happening to me....its from my coworker/friend who is going through it. I thought I would share since I have never had anything like it happened to me. Sorry...its kind of long.

My friend had recently put an offer into a fixer upper home. They noticed that home needed a new roof, new floors, etc. The sellers had the home listed at about $30,000 too much for the condition it was in. The home had been on the market for over 2 years and the owners lived in another state.
Anyway, my friend negotiated a price that him and the sellers agreed on and the contract was signed for the agreed upon price.
Friend did inspections and saw there were lots of repairs needed done. He knew that work needed to be done and was good with it being "as-is". His real estate agent did let the seller's agent know of all the things that were wrong with the house just so that they were informed. He didn't ask for any repairs.
About a week before closing, the title company sent info to him about the title of that house. Apparently, the people had 2 liens on the title. One from a mortgage company and another lien where the sewer company said $7,000 was owed for unpaid bills.(apparently that particular area has sewer separate from the water company) He asked his agent to get a hold of the sellers' agent and apparently the sellers had never paid the sewer bill since they had owned the house. What the heck?? How does the sewer company keep providing service to someone without trying to collect? Weird.
Friend said that he got worried that maybe the deal was going to be screwed up, but the title company called him up and said that they were able to negotiate a reduced rate for the liens. The title company told him that the amount of money that is being paid for the house will cover all the expenses...the fees, the commissions, etc.....The sellers will not have to bring any money to the table.

Here is the weird/greedy situation.... the seller's real estate agent calls his agent and tells him that the sellers want more money because "they aren't going to make a profit on this house and are not going to sign any papers at closing". WTH???
HIS agent tells the seller's agent that they have a signed contract and they can't just verbally say they aren't signing. His agent also tells the seller's agent that they will be liable for all expenses that the buyer has incurred while waiting to close. He also tells her that she needs to remind her clients that the house will have a hard time being financed with the condition its in.(Friend is paying cash).

My friend is going to closing next week. He is still nervous about what might happen.

I didn't have any advice to tell him. I thought it sounded really bizarre because I have never had to deal with homes with liens on their titles or a seller trying to get more money after a signed contract.

Any of you had weird things happen after you signed?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 03-05-2020, 10:58 AM
 
10 posts, read 4,374 times
Reputation: 20
Once the pack of paperwork is signed at closing, the title company will take care of the legal paperwork with the county of transfer of ownership. Its out of the buyer's and seller's hands at this point. Before this, if the seller won't sign the final paperwork, its a legal issue and there is a possibility based on actual circumstances that the buyer could sue the seller and be awarded damages. It sounds like the price had been agreed upon and its at a point in the process where the buyer should just say no to the price change request.

I'm glad we have title companies in the US. Not all countries have this step. I have looked into buying property in foreign countries and it is a wild world out there.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-05-2020, 02:03 PM
 
Location: North Carolina
4 posts, read 4,234 times
Reputation: 23
I'm curious to know how this turns out. Me_in_Az is right, but I haven't heard of a seller asking for more money at this point in the game especially with the issues with the property. I can't imagine what is going on with the seller, however, I hope for the best for your friend.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-05-2020, 02:15 PM
 
Location: Raleigh NC
25,119 posts, read 16,146,620 times
Reputation: 14408
not completely sure what the question is, but yes I've been involved where Buyers or Sellers at some point "refuse to sign". That is the "greedy" part I assume?

Buyer makes an offer, seller accepts. two weeks later, backup offer appears for 10% more. Seller wants out and does everything they can to get out.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-05-2020, 03:23 PM
 
Location: El paso,tx
4,514 posts, read 2,507,613 times
Reputation: 8200
I'd tell your friend to have a real estate atty write a letter saying they will be going to closing under the terms of the signed contract. If the sellers do not close, the buyer will be filing a suit for expenses, and filing for a lis pendens.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-05-2020, 11:28 PM
 
3,110 posts, read 2,952,666 times
Reputation: 2959
There is a small per engage of the population that always tries to come up short at the end, or try to get more subsidies at the last minute. Buyers will do this, when they are cash strapped. My third FSBO was fine, but I wanted the buyer to go over each closing expense on a 3 x 5 card (for each item). That way, at the title company office, we would just pull out the card, as each item came up when they were writing final contract. Buyer refused to do this, and almost blew the whole deal. He balked at having to prepay for insurance escrow for the account servicer...mainly because they didn't have the extra 500 bucks to their names..not my problem, you either do it, or we can't close. IOW, it was his way of trying to get some last minute concessions at closing.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-07-2020, 08:35 AM
 
5,108 posts, read 6,050,707 times
Reputation: 7184
Sounds like your friends agent has a good handle on the situation and has told the seller what the reality is
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-07-2020, 08:55 AM
 
Location: 89052 & 75206
8,103 posts, read 8,284,205 times
Reputation: 19902
In buying and selling about 30 houses, I have had many unusual situations and am right now closing out a problem related to former owners.

So, none of your post surprised me.

Please tell your friends that its imperative they get Title Insurance to protect themselves from future liens that may show up.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-07-2020, 05:36 PM
 
Location: North Carolina
3,023 posts, read 1,992,633 times
Reputation: 11253
The sellers realtor has the most leverage on them because sellers signed a listing agreement and realtor is due their % because they arranged a sale. Whether realtor will enforce that is up to them. I've never heard of a realtor suing their seller when the seller backed out but it's in every list agreement I've signed.

Yes the buyer can record a lis pedens but what will be the result? Expense of an attorney, time lost and no guarantee they will win. They have a contract but is it worth it?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-08-2020, 09:15 AM
 
8,005 posts, read 7,170,420 times
Reputation: 18165
As for asking for something additional after contract is signed, why not? Buyers may refuse but you're not going to get anything you don't ask for. I give the sellers credit for being bold. The answer is still no, however. Hey, they tried.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Real Estate

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 07:32 PM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top