It's crunch time. My buyers have to be out of their rental in 60 days, no exception, and with 3 kids and 3 dogs, finding temporary quarters is not really a possibility.
They are waiting for a long overdue employment letter in order to feel comfortable getting under contract. Meanwhile, they have looked at a number of homes, narrowed down the list to several that will work just fine for them but have one special house that meets all of their needs and is simply their dream house. Mentally, they already see themselves living there.
The letter arrives! Oh, happy day...now let's go take one final look at that house and then get the offer submitted.
Pull up the listing to double check the showing instructions and....uh, wait, what? Where is the listing?
Huh. Where is it? Not under contract. Ah...there it is...withdrawn.
Okay, okay, we still have a shot...maybe it's just temporary while they do some work to the house or something. No panicking yet.
Call the agent to see what's happening.
Aaarrrghhh is the response...those sellers! They moved out of the house a few years ago, could not sell it for what they wanted and put it on the rental market. After the last tenants moved out, they decided it was finally time to sell, so they put it on the market.
Although the listing agent says she encouraged them repeatedly to talk to a financial person or a tax accountant and the sellers kept saying they would, turns out...they didn't.
Now they find out if they sell, they will incur a huge capital gains tax bill - oops, should have spoken to an accountant, after all - so they are having to move back into the house. The house they moved out of years ago because the commute was just killing them. The house they sold all of the large scale furniture for when they moved into a much smaller rental home, where they planned to live until the bigger house sold.
So, the sellers are crushed, as are my buyers, who really, really wanted this house. A listing agent is out hours and hours of time spent preparing and marketing the home for sale.
All because someone did not heed the advice of their agent. Or because they did not listen. Because they didn't know what they didn't know - but somehow, didn't think their agent knew, either.
We've all probably been there...wasted a lot of time and effort on unheeded advice.
I just thank my lucky stars my buyers were not under contract with these bozos before they finally woke up to the fact they needed professional financial advice.
Sellers, when you hire a real estate agent, please listen to him or her when they give advice, for it is advice typically honed from years of experience and education.
After all, your missteps can affect a number of people, not just you.
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