The old saying "It’s not over till it’s over" can’t be more true then in real estate. I know a story like this happens not just in Princeton, W. Windsor, Montgomery or Hopewell, New Jersey, but anywhere where there are homes for sale. This story was a perfect candidate for a huge rant, but not much is learned from those. So, instead, I would like to turn it into a learning opportunity for buyers, sellers and agents.
Imagine this scenario.
It’s 10 am on a perfectly nice day - the -the day of the closing when the seller’s agent gets a phone call and is told that the package sent by Mr. Seller’s attorney to Mr. Buyer’s attorney is missing a document.
-The agent calls Mr. Seller and his attorney, but neither answer the call. Where are they? -Quick on her feet, the agent decides to call Mr. Seller’s mother, who tells the agent where to find the Mr. Seller.
-The agent rushes to Mr. Seller's house and gets the document.
The agent drives to closing and receives a call from Mr. Buyer's agent saying that during the final walk-through the following was found:
-Some debris on the property was not removed.
-An item promised by Mr. Seller to be fixed- was not fixed.
-An item Mr. Seller said was fixed, Mr. Buyer does not think was fixed properly.
-Something in the house that was always open, is now closed, and Mr. Seller does not know how to open it.
At the closing office the agent is told that the buyer is all packed to move, his kids are waiting in the reception room to go to their new home, and that the closing can not be re-scheduled. Mr. Buyer asks for a significant amount to be escrowed, pending fixing of all of the above issues.
Mr. Seller and his attorney continue to be unreachable.
What is the agent to do? Mr. Buyer is unwilling to accept the promise that things will be addressed and says that if not closed today the deal is off and Mr. Seller will be responsible for the expenses incurred due to breach of contract. Mr. Seller’s attorney calls to say his client does not agree to put any of his money in the escrow.
The agent looks at the 2 kids playing in the reception room, and decides to escrow the amount from her commission and pay for what needs to be done. The deal closes. It's 5pm on a very bad closing day.
What would you do in a situation like this? Should the agent just walked away and let the deal collapse?
Several hours later, this story is written - and tomorrow looks like a perfectly nice day for sellers, buyers and agents.
Faina Sechzer - Princeton, Montgomery, Hopewell, NJ Real Estate Expert
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Sorry to hear about your closing. I recently had a closing from hell, actually the entire transaction. I make write a book on it but to make it short I ended up giving up $6K from my commission to get it to closing. I had both sides of the transaction so if it went back on the market and did sell, most likely I wouldn't have had both ends so I still made a little more.
If I knew what would of transpired in the ordeal I would have told the buyer to go suck a lemon at the beginning. Even as closing this a**hole of a buyer said he wasn't satisifed that the clean termite inspection noted that the inspector couldn't basically see through walls. I still bite my lips everytime I think of him.
Sometimes you just got to give in to get a deal done. It stinks but some buyers and sellers don't care if it closes or not out of pride. I'd rather get paid after all my work so I'll give in a little sometimes.