God Bless Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise for giving us Jerry Maguire. Have you ever felt like him? I was him yesterday.
I am currently under contract with a house that was found to have old termites and mud tubes. The transaction has been difficult from day 1. Started when the listing agent did not see the need to have all parties initial the PRICE CHANGE on the first page of the contract. That was my first clue things might be tricky. He saw no need for such trivialities.
Back to termites. No real damage, but needs to be treated because clearly there's been a problem in the past. Sellers refused and we negotiated a credit for that and other things instead. I scheduled the termite treatment for a week prior to closing. Sellers refused to accomodate that and wanted us to wait 2 days before closing. Lender says that will delay closing because conditions have to be cleared 48 hours prior, and a clear termite report is a condition (this is Home Selling-With a-Mortgage-101 really). I explain this and get no movement or understanding, simply "well we are giving you 48 hours!"
Now most agents who have sold even a handful of homes requiring a mortgage know that "all conditions cleared 48 hours prior" does not mean you do the termite treatment 48 hours prior and it will all instantly travel through light speed to the underwriter and get cleared within seconds. The termite company has to do the treatment, then inspect, then convey results to the office, office manager writes the report, who sends it to the real estate agent. It then has to go to the loan officer, who forwards it to the underwriter, who might have other files to work on, or be at lunch or in the bathroom when it hits her desk. Waiting 48 hours to do something that needs to be cleared within that amount of time before closing is well, unreasonable. It assumes that your sale, your file and your needs are the only ones present in this transaction and frankly, the world. I am sure a seller would rather not have a termite company come out while they are packing, but it happens in most real estate transactions. Moving is inconvenient. Selling a home is not like going on vacation or even a typical day at work. There are many extra tasks and chores to tend to. It's part of the deal. It seems these things are obvious and basic unless you are dealing with either aliens or perhaps toddlers. But adults and agents who have done this many times before? Why are we having this conversation?
The communication from both the agent and sellers was obsitnate, it was inflexible. It was unreasonable. It was: "do it 48 hours prior. Period. We won't let you in before."
This ridiculous issue was finally resolved by the saint of a termite company calling the sellers directly and convincing them to do the termite on Saturday. Turns out their fear was exposure to pesticides. I get that, but a little education by the listing agent and willingness to make things work would have avoided a lot of stress and multiple phone calls on the part of myself, buyer, lender and termite company. For example, the listing agent could have simply explained to his sellers that this is part of the process and you need to accomodate lender timelines. It's in the contract. You give the buyer and their representatives access to the home in order to get it sold. Instead, he just pushed back, with condecending tones and complete lack of understanding for how homes get sold. Don't think "Rookie mistake" either. Nope he's been selling houses for about as long as I've been alive.
Enjoy a little clip from one of the best movies ever - "Help Me. Help You!"
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