I was recently in a situation where I was helping a buyer purchase a foreclosed home. We found the house, wrote up the contract, both parties signed it and it was binding. The listing agent was doing a horrible job and actually ended up getting fired from the bank selling the home. The bank then hired a new listing agent and I got into contact with him right away and let him know we had a contract on the home and forwarded him all of the documents.
This was on a Thursday. The listing agent (and the bank) completely ignored the fact that we had a binding contract on this house and put it back on the market that Friday. Over the weekend they got a total of 10 more offers from prospective buyers who wanted to purchase the home and the listing agent was trying to manipulate me into getting my client to cancel their purchase agreement.
After hearing this, I got on the phone with my client and told them we need to hire an attorney. I called my real Estate attorney, Greg Soule. I told Greg what the bank was trying to do to my client. He said "they can't do that". I said "I know". Within 24 hours of Greg contacting them the listing agent was calling me to say that they would honor my clients contract.
In the end we did force the bank to live up to their responsibilities and sell the house to my client. Overall, it was not a great real estate experience for the buyers or myself. My client and I both felt like we were being bullied and the bank thought they could do what ever they wanted regardless of our state laws here in Minnesota.
Comments (3)Subscribe to CommentsComment