On Friday March 7th Monika and I closed on this bank owned property in East Hampstead, New Hampshire. It had been on the market for just a few hours when our buyers called us and said they they wanted to see it.
Our website extracts listings from our MLS a few times a day so our customers and clients can see what is new to the market quicker than most other websites out there.
Our Buyers had just had a bad experience with another bank owned property in Hampstead where the bank's management company took over two weeks to de-winterize the property and for our buyers time was of the essence. After much delay our clients finally walked away from that property and moved on.
Things looked good as we drafted an offer on the new listing and had a pretty quick negotiating session. We were able to save our client over $18,000 off the already below market list price.
Then the fun started! Because of the timing we needed a pretty quick closing date and agreed on just 15 days from acceptance. In the end it took 37 days from acceptance to close and I guess we're lucky that it didn't take longer.
The toughest problem dealing with bank owned properties is that the Banks and their management companies are so inundated with paperwork that they don't know which end is up. Trying to get simple addendum's signed took days and then only after we called and emailed numerous times.
The straw that almost broke the Camels back was when we were waiting for a response for a remedy to a certain home inspection defect and it took almost two weeks to get it. We kept trying and the buyer's lender kept trying to get an answer but all we got was a big goose egg. It wasn't until after 8PM the night before we were to close that we finally got it. Imagine going that long without anything signed?
At the same time the closing agent (attorney) was looking for an assignment that needed to be recorded but the banks management company wouldn't return phone calls because they didn't understand what the closing agent needed. It wasn't until she called late in the day the day before we were to close that someone finally called and said they didn't understand what she needed as it was way over their head. She finally asked to speak to their legal department to get it straightened out.
I guess the moral to this post is that bank owned properties aren't the easiest to get to the closing table. You need to have a strong stomach to tolerate the needless delays and issues that arise.
Dealing with people who are over worked and probably under paid and not all that competent can be hazardous to your well being. Dealing with a Co-Broker that has way too many listings and not enough office support to do their job just adds unnecessarily to the stress level of everyone involved.
I don't know how we did it BUT we got it closed...thanks to a diligent closing attorney who went above and beyond her duty, Jackie Fitzgerald from Maplewood Title Company and from an experienced mortgage officer Dennis Edmondson from Chase Mortgage who kept us all calm and worked with us to do what was needed to be done... thats how we got it to close. We all worked Together as a TEAM.
If you ever think that being a REALTOR is just about unlocking the door...give me a call, I'd love to tell you the whole story.
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This sure was one difficult transaction! I give you credit Jay as in the end I would have lost it for sure.