Oh what a mess..

Oh my, what a challenge December was… a nearly catastrophic situation turned into a happy ending and did I pour myself some wine that night. My listing on 625 Argyle court in Windemere went pending in November 2010. Everything was going well till the day we were supposed to remove contingencies.

The dreaded call from the buyer’s agent came in with some bad news. The appraisal has come in but the lender HSBC will not lend $600,000 but instead they will only loan $575,000. Ok, so what do I do? I am not going back to the seller to ask for a price reduction buddy, you can forget it. He said he will reduce his commission to the seller and the buyer could use that money to make up the difference. Seller agrees and the agent removes contingencies. We take a deep breath and a sigh of relief.

We are all set to close in time. We are supposed to close on December 21^st, seller leaves for an overseas vacation and I get another horrendous call. The buyer’s loan got suspended………..  I ask, WHY? There were collections posted for $450/ on the buyer’s credit report and his score dropped from 806 to 679. OMG, I told you not to go to HSBC but you did not listen to me. What do we do now? Buyer’s agent conveniently informs me- I am leaving for vacation tonight, so good luck Rama- I don’t care anymore. Really????????????? Well, I will get to that part of this saga in a bit. I cannot locate the seller but email him an explanation asking him for extra time to close the file. I get on the phone with my loan officer at Bank of America (yes BofA), run around like crazy for 10 days, get the buyer’s loan approved and take it to closing on Dec.30^th . Hard to believe, but 500% true!!

A rollercoaster ride that finally ended with everyone happy, but I landed up doing all the work for the buyer and the seller! During this craziness the buyers landed up telling me that the agent came to them as a referral from a friend and the agent would intimidate them and not show up. Said he would charge $150.00 per hour for every visit they ask him to make to the house. The only time the agent showed up was when they were doing inspections. This is what I say to buyers- please be careful. Your friends and others you know may tell you that you need an agent just to write a contract ; take the agents commission and offer them a small fees for his services- this transaction sure as hell taught me that it can turn into catastrophe. The agent removed loan contingencies without getting a loan approval and put the buyers at risk of losing $24,000 of their hard earned money. If I had decided to be hardnosed, they would have gone into arbitration to recover their deposit. You have to be sure that the agent working for you is working for you and providing full service and watching out for your interest. This is the biggest purchase or sale of your home, do you want to hand over your financial future to someone who provides no service beyond writing an offer?