Oh Yes... This WAS A Really Big Deal!
A few years back in the 'Sellers Market of 2007' one of my Annapolis listings was presented with a contract from an out of area buyers agent. I checked him out on MRIS to see if he had sold in our area before, which he had, so I called the agents to see how the transaction went. Not spectacular was the basis of the comments but each one closed. So I spoke to my sellers about the offer.
The sellers were happy as they had already moved to their new home and were now paying two mortgage payments. The contract was for above list price with a decent settlement date. I told them I had not worked with this agent before and he was from out of the area and at best spoke broken English. I had also spoke with the lender and he said all was fine with absolutely no issues and yada yada yada. We made a few adjustments, signed off and we were on our way.
Every week I called this lender for an update, always with a positive outcome and the standing ado of no worries all is good.
Settlement date came and as I, with the sellers, walked into the settlement office I was all of a sudden treated like I was the best thing the lender, agent and title person had seen since slice bread. They couldn't do enough to make me and my sellers comfortable. And then.... and then.... it started to make sense as to why.
The lender came up to me and quietly said we had to make a change on the borrowers loan at the last minute and this change would require the sellers to write a check 'under the table' for an amount that would make the loan work. Of course they would bump the sales price to cover this they whispered in my ear. I excused myself and said I need to speak to my sellers. Of course, they said with a smile on their faces thinking I was going to make this work.
I took my sellers to another room and explained that this was not good and that the buyers team of agent, lender and title company was asking us to do something totally illegal and that even though I knew how important this closing was to them that we needed to walk away. They agreed though very disheartened.
Back to the room with the buyer and his team I said I am sorry but what you are asking of us is not legal and I refuse to take part in this way of doing business. I said the sellers and I were leaving and when, and not before, they were able to put all monies on the settlement paperwork and not under the table we would be happy to sign but until then we were not. With that we left.
This team of agent, lender and title were trying to make a REALLY BIG DEAL just another day of doing business and I was not playing along.
As I drove back to my office with the sellers in my car I wondered how many other agents had actually let the VERY BIG DEAL slide and went to settlement because I got the feeling this was not the first time this team had tried this ploy.
What did I learn? That you always need to be on your toes in this business as not everyone is above board and ethical.
By the way it did settle approximately 3 days later with everything above board and legal and they came to my office instead of us to theirs. The settlement was finally completed as it should be.
Sadly about a year later the home went into foreclosure. A few years after that I heard this team of agent, lender, and title company were shut down, I guess one too many really big deals finally caught up with them.
Oh Yes... This WAS A Really Big Deal!
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