Hi folks. Have you ever had to "chip in" to make a deal work? I have. If necessary I will help to get a transaction closed.
Here's a perfect example of my willingness to help. I had a closing a few years back. It was a pretty good deal for me. A vacant lot, selling for $240,000 cash, with me being on both sides of the transaction. For me, that's a pretty good pay check. And of course being that it was vacant land, and a cash deal, there was very little work involved.
Anyway, when I wrote the deal, the buyer had placed a $10,000 deposit and said he would bring $230,000 to closing and not a dime more. No problem, I wrote the deal stating that the Buyer would incur no closing costs, so the only difference in his $230,000 would be tax pro-rations which would be in his favor anyway.
The closing was scheduled for late in the afternoon and my Seller, who is a long time customer of mine, decided to go in in the morning to sign his side of the deal and we would let the Buyer go in at 4:00 to take care of his side. I decided not to go since it was a pretty straight forward cash deal and I couldn't see driving for an 1 ½ hours for a 10 minute closing. Both parties knew this and had no issue with it. They were both seasoned Buyers and Sellers.
I never did see a HUD1. As usual in Florida it is very, very difficult to get a HUD statement prior to closing. But no big deal, I spoke to my Seller after he had signed and he confirmed everything was OK on the HUD. I asked him to fax it to me when he got back to his office later that day and he did.
While reviewing the HUD, I noticed that the Title Company was charging the Buyer some costs and his figure was now higher than the $230,000 he was counting on. So, I called the closer and after several E-mails she agreed to just deduct the charges from my commission and bring the Buyer back down to an even $230,000.
I called the Buyer and informed him of this and he was pleased and all set to close. Unfortunately, he got stuck in traffic and didn't arrive until just about 5:00. The closer I had been dealing with had already left and had not made the changes on the HUD as we had discussed. Well, when the fill in closer whipped out the HUD for the Buyer to sign, he refused!!
In fact, he refused to close and picked up his check and headed for the front door. The closer in a panic tried to reach me but couldn't so ran out into the parking lot and called the Buyer back in and then got authorization from the owner to remove the charges. Folks, this deal almost fell apart at the table because the closer did not initiate the HUD change we had agreed upon and because I was not there to solve the problem.
However, the good part was, they ate the charges and the Buyer signed and the deal closed. It was a close call but it closed.
The amount in dispute..................$4.36!!!!!!! Yep, that's right, four dollars and thirty six cents!! Go figure.
***I am NOT an Attorney nor do I play one on TV. Click the button below for my Bio.
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