Texas Real Estate (documentation, agent, sale, banks)

[Smarba]

I moved to Texas the middle of January as I accepted a position with an
employer in Galveston. My family is still in Michigan including my 2 young
children 9 and 6. These past 3 weeks my husband has been in Texas and we
have been looking for a place to buy. Well we found the home that we wanted
to purchase located in Texas City. We were told that we would need to
provide proof of funds as we were paying cash for the home. My mother-in-law
gathered all the documentation as the funds were coming from their accounts
with New York Life. We put an offer in on 4-21-2010, 9 days prior to the
4-30 deadline for the $8,000.00 federal tax credit, for the home for
$112,000.00 and provided the proof of funds documentation. The banks
countered our offer,$120,000(I didn't get the paperwork on that though) 5
days later, and moved the closing date up. Nothing was said about any
additional funds documentation which at this time we figured was sufficient.
We countered that offer, the same day, at 117,000 with their closing date.
They than turned around and countered that offer excepting the $117,000 but
moved the closing date up even more. We at this point said okay we except.
What is really boggling here is when you have accepted all the banks terms
how can they now turn around and counter once again same amount but move the
closing date to May 13th, there was still no mention that the funding
documentation was not sufficient. Early on the day of April 30th the bank
informs us that they now need a letter from my in-laws saying that they were
lending us the money in order to connect the dots between the funding
sources and us, which we promptly provided. Now one would think it would be
good to go. After a few hours they inform us now they want proof that the
funds are in a bank account and available for use immediately, not by the
13th. The money had been wire transferred on the 29th to my in-laws bank
account but had not yet showed up in the account. The sad part of this whole
process had they told us they needed this type of documentation with their
first counter we could have had everything in order and the money in the
bank account. They played a game stringing us along until the time we had to
work on any other property was gone along with the $8,000.00 tax credit.
Answer this, what makes them any different than a THIEF? They could have
asked upfront for all the documents that they were going to require from us,
but no they fed us in bite size pieces like we were some sort of dog.

We now know that nothing was signed and they obviously let the offer expire.
They didn't even have the decency to let the agent know so we could have
been given proper notification. Rental houses of the same size in the area
are about $3000 per month. My husband leaves to return to MI on May 2nd. At
this time the bank left us with no place to live, no $8,000.00 tax credit,
and left with the choice of paying high rent or waiting until a later date
to move my family down to TX.

I thought we bailed out the banks in order for them to continue to do
business. They were not going to loose on this deal as a matter of fact they
would have gotten $1,210.00 for doing nothing had we pulled out or didn't
show up at the table with the money. The money showed up in the bank account
on Monday May 3rd and now we are left to pay interest on that money until I
can find a place so I can bring my family home.

The real estate agent working on the sellers side couldn't even tell me who
the sellers were she only knows them as Home Loan Services, well when you go
do a search for home loan services on-line its a guessing game on who these
people really are. Transparency seems to be an issue and I don't know but I
would take a wild guess and say it is some big bank hiding in the shadows
here. I haven't seen or dealt with such shady and deceptive practices from a
real estate stand to a bank in all my life.

[Silverfall]

Home Loan Services is probably Ocwen.

You sound like you were poorly prepared for making an offer on an REO property. The paper trail they asked for is extremely important and the banks don't sign anything, typically, for a good couple of weeks into the transaction. Offers are typically done verbally via the computer system relayed to the listing agent, relayed to the buyer agent.

Not understanding the system doesn't mean it was shady or deceptive. You just don't have an understanding of the process.

[cheryjohns]

Welcome to the world of the Real America. The banks crashed our economy and yet they are still calling all of the shots, howbeit in a totally incompetent and arrogant manner. Your story is one of thousands. We could start a whole category of threads in the forum about this.
As a Realtor, I discouraged anyone trying to get the tax credit from dealing with a short sale at all. If it was a foreclosure, the rule was that we needed to be out of the inspection period before the deadline.
I recently sold a house in Texas City, so I know the whole problem of availabilty down there. Be careful who you buy from. There is a flipper that does extremely shoddy work in that vicinity.

[rjrcm]

Silverfall is right, you need to be better prepared when going after bank owned properties (REOs). Even if your documentation was not an issue, it's unlikely you would have had a signed contract in time for the credit. Banks only give verbal counters until everyone agrees, then it may take a week or so to actually get a signed contract from the bank.