I had buyers who came to town and they decided early on that they did not want any short sales or foreclosures.
They did not want to wait months to get an approval for a short sale, finding out some day in the future whether they would get the home or not. They also had friends who purchased a foreclosure home only to go through headaches with issues after they moved in and did not want to buy a home with no disclosures.
Over two days we went to see 17 homes all resales, not in foreclosure and not being sold as a short sale.
My buyers found their right home, I verified with the listing agent that this is not a short sale and will not become a short sale, and then an offer was written and presented through the listing agent. The sellers gave a verbal acceptance but said they would not be able to access their email to get the paperwork during the weekend but would sign it Monday evening when they get home.
On Monday I get a call from the listing agent saying we have a problem. The seller was happy with the offer and based on the net sheet showing the mortgage payoff and the other costs of selling the home they were fine, until the seller asked “how will we pay the home equity loan we took out to pay for a new roof and other repairs.”
Suddenly, we go from a regular resale, to the seller will accept the offer, but now it will have to go through as a short sale.
Obviously, the buyers are not thrilled and now need to go see more homes, find one they like and make another offer, hoping that the next one will turn out better.
One big problem though. I scheduled four days to work with these buyers, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Now I have out of town buyers already scheduled for the rest of the week. Maybe we might finish early one day, or maybe they will find the right home early and I could help my other buyers, but of course I can’t plan on that.
I can’t in good conscience make them wait and of course they do not want to wait. They want a home while they are here.
So now there are two options, find an agent that is available to show them homes each day, or provide the buyers the names and phone numbers of the listing agents so they can schedule showings direct. I personally believe buyers should never buy a home directly through the listing agent, but in this case it might be a necessity.
Working with these folks over the past few months, I have become very aware of just what they are looking for, their needs and wants. They have also become very comfortable working with me, knowing how I work. Things like this of course do happen and they are out of our control, however these are the things that can give us a bad name and of course nobody wins in these situations.
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