Recently I was a buyer's agent in a transaction. Simple transaction (or so I thought), negotiated price, asked for a small amount of closing cost,etc. The buyer had the down payment money needed and also would be doing repairs on the home after purchasing it. There was never any indication that funds were not available (I knew that funds were tight but not MIA).
The inspection report came back, there were some repairs we would be asking the seller to cover. After negotiations were done both parties were satisfied. Closing date was approaching and lender (whom buyer had prior to working with me) will not return my calls, emails, etc. I was getting frustrated and trying to keep it under control...fortunately, the seller's agent was also from my office. She happened to call the lender and catch him. He told us that due to the changes in the market we would need to extend the contract until the following week. Frustrating, yes but understandable.
Next week rolls around and supposedly the underwriting is requesting the appraiser go back and contact each party from all of the comps that were used in the appraisal to verify that they were not REO properties. Ok, another week added to the contract. During this week (the second week after the original close date) the lender calls the SELLER's agent not me (which was so odd to me, since I have never had any problems with him nor anyone else when it came to communicating) and informed her that the buyer's would be needing down payment assistance and needed the contract amended to reflect the sales price increased by $10,000 dollars (BTW, this home was only under contract to begin with for $57,000). The seller would then need to sign, saying that SHE would be paying BJ Services $7500 to cover repairs that were done on the home (WHAT REPAIRS??? and WHO is BJ Services???) prior to closing. Ummm....I don't know about you but I have a HUGE problem with this!!
The lender sent an invoice to the title company asking for $7500 to be paid to BJ services out of the seller's proceeds. The invoice did not have any explanation on it, the lender was keeping me in the dark as much as possible, etc. I was completely alarmed that my buyer was ultimately paying $7500 to BJ services and in no way was it disclosed on the HUD that the money was coming back to my buyer nor what he was getting for the money...this was not smelling right to me at all nor to the seller's agent or our broker.
After much consideration, the seller's agent, our broker and myself all decided with so many red flags going off we did not want to risk being tied up in something that did not seem on the up and up...so we released both clients from using our services and voided the contract on the day of closing. Allowing them to write their own contract and negotiate between themselves if they cared to still purchase.
It was frustrating to work so hard on something for it not to close but if there was any question of fraud none of us wanted to be a part of it.
I would love to hear your thoughts and if you have had any experience with BJ group in the past.
Thank you for listening to my ramblings!
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I don't know who BJ Services is but I have had a similar situation in my own office and we released the buyer from the sale and absolved ourselves of any involvement too. Yes, it's frustrating but less frustrating than being sued for fraud.