So I finally closed on a short sale contract we wrote over six months ago. I was on the buying side of this and it was a really good friend of mine which is a big reason why it drove me so crazy. She would call all the time. And I mean all the time. She had so many different scenarios she would play out to me that this thing would go and how she would never get this place.
I did a pretty good job with keeping her calm as I do now how outspoken she is and she's a pretty crazy one. She is one of my best friends though so I can say that about her. The deal itself wasn't to bad except I had to go out on my own from all angles to find out what was going on. There were never any updates voluntarily given to me by the listing agent since the time we put the contract in. After the first few weeks I wanted to make sure that the file was going smoothly and to see if it had all been submitted. So he tells me from that point on to not call him but to just call the title company as he obviously didn't want to update me on the transaction.
Now this didn't seem normal to me as it wouldn't be something I would do on the listing side of things. I would give weekly or at least bi-weekly updates even if there was nothing much that has changed. I believe that is on their shoulders to do. You are the direct connection with the title company and possibly the lender allowing the short sale but you don't want to be bothered with the work you just want to collect your check.
I wasn't too crazy about all this but I wasn't going to let it bring me down. I just did what he said and bypassed him and talked with the Title company myself to get the updates I needed and my buyer desperately needed. So things take a long time. We haven't had an answer on our offer even after almost five months. So finally my buyer is getting fed up and says they are thinking of backing out on the deal since they are pretty upset with the progress. Who can blame them. I try my best to keep them informed on the timely manner of short sales but it is way past that. So I call the title company and let them know my buyer will be backing out of the contract in two weeks. Well wouldn't you know not two days later we have an answer on our offer. We get a counter at about six grand higher than we put in so my buyers accept it.
Finally some good progress and I can tell my clients a little more than "its gonna be just a little while longer".
So we move forward pretty quickly after that and get ourselves a closing date which is today July 8th, 2011. Wouldn't you know that yesterday just one day before closing a discovery is made on the title. The seller has neglected to pay his taxes for the entire year of 2010 which came out to about $1400.00. This is a decent amount of money and we can't close unless this gets paid. The title company realizing they should have caught this a long time ago agree to do their part for only $25.00 so they contributed $500.00 to the taxes. Now there is $900 that is owed. The sellers agree to come up with $200 as they can't pay anymore than that. So finally the listing agent calls me. Also I might add he is also the broker of his company which I wont name here. So he stands to make a whole lot more on this than me since he isn't splitting anything with anyone. He wants to pay half the taxes and wants me to pay the other half out of my commission. Now does this make sense? I have been calling and calling on this file for half a year and he hasn't really done much but now wants to cut out a big chunk of my commission because of something his seller neglected to do. I think he should have caught this a long time ago also. My broker says to absolutely not pay it and it is on him to pay it. But we can't close unless it gets paid......
I tell my buyer about this and she isn't very happy but is ok with paying half the remainder of the tax balance as long as the listing agent pays the other half. He agrees also after a big earful from my broker. We did get to close today on a nightmare of a short sale.
Has this happened to anyone before or heard of something like this. If this would have been a half a million dollar home I wouldn't mind coming off a few hundred to close the deal but it wasn't. The home sold for $76,000.00. That is a much bigger cut than I could do. So is this a normal thing?
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