I'll start by saying that I have experienced a buyer backing out....on christmas eve of all days. It was two days before CLOSING the woman lost her job,and her mortgage. We lived in Mass at the time, trying to sell our first home. We thought there were laws protecting us from buyers backing out, earnest money..nope. They told us that both parties would have to negotiate and sign the release of funds or it would go through small claims. The lady finally agreed to giving us half the 9k deposit for our troubles. So we relisted and sold it again in a week. Back then it was a sellers market.(3.5 yrs ago) We got a better offer the second time, and it all worked out for the better. I thought it was the end of the world at the time. Going through that makes me highly nervous about going through the whole home selling again. Has anyone have a crazy story to share?
That has not happened to me, but it is definately one of my worst fears regarding the sale of this house. To have it so close, you can taste it...and to have it fall apart would be SO devistating, esp. in this market.
We accepted a contract and ended up having the buyer back out 4 days later because their contractor indicated that the changes they wanted to make were going to be more expensive then they wanted to pay. This was not a contingency in the contract. The buyers simply wanted to get our house snapped up (off the market) in order to have time to get their contractor in to see it and bid the job without risk it would be sold out from under them. Dirty pool, in my opinion, and they are darn lucky we didn't push to penalize them financially (i.e. keep a portion of the earnest money).
The lady should have gotten all her money back. She acted in good faith and it wasn't her fault she lost her job and mortgage.
Actually, she was a bartender who got fired from being late all the time. So no, she shouldn't have gotten her money back. Our house sat off the market for a total of 6mths....we almost lost the house we were purchasing because of it, and the people we were buying from almost lost theirs. When one person screws up in a situation like that, it is a domino affect...plus..plus plus. We had to drop our "hubbard clause" in order to continue our home purchase. We dropped it a week before closing. (I will never do that again) So in the fear of loosing a buyer,money and time we also had the fear of two mortgages. So we did the right thing. I don't care if she had good intentions on buying it, she was the one who didn't show up to work on time. JMO
We lost our buyer 12 hours before closing back in October. They lost their buyer, so decided to pass it on to us. There was no contingency. We got a lawyer and forced a close. It took 2 months at double mortgage payments, but at only a $2000 total loss it was worth it!
I've seen 'em fall apart at the table! Had one - the house was awful- investors buying. Got to settlement, seller is waxing eloquent about the 'new' roof. So we ask, "who's the roofer? Did they give you a warranty?" Seller says "It's none of your %**#@@ business! If You don't want my house take your (donkeys?) out of here. We Did.
We walked.
Another time buyer put 20% in escrow and then took off overnite to the Dominican. We always suspected the source of the funds...
Posts: 1837 | Location: Pa | Registered: Sep 18, 2002
On my first house, I had the typical buyer within the first couple weeks - young couple. Her father was buying the house for them, guaranteeing all the money - but they lied on their application and the mortgage company denied the loan. Then, the father was so mad about how stupid they were, he refused to buy them a house (my house was on the market almost a year before I sold). More recently, I've had several friends get caught in the "house value has decreased more than my deposit" so the buyers just walk away. It ain't over till the fat lady sings....
Posts: 3634 | Location: Northern Virginia, USA | Registered: May 29, 2003
Haven't given many details here, but we have a choice of where to live. DH prefers one, I prefer others.
Anyhoo, DH found a new build in his preferred location that the original buyers just backed out of today. It'd be ready in a matter of a few months.
Their backing out could be really good news for us. Keep your fingers crossed for us, and my point is maybe buyers backing out isn't always a bad thing!
quote: Actually, she was a bartender who got fired from being late all the time. So no, she shouldn't have gotten her money back.
How is it that you know the reason for her termination ? She wrote a letter to the mortgage company and faxed it to our Realtor. The mortgage co. had to call to verify, and sure enough that is what happened. Had it been b/c she just got layed off from a job, that would be a different story. What is the point of a deposit when you aren't planning on trusting it? Whoever buys this house will have to put a deposit down. I don't trust a sole nowadays.
Seller keels over at closing while signing closing papers...wife says wait a minute... it's his heart.. his back up battery will kick in in a minute. Sure enough, it did, and we closed.
LOL, boy this thread title brought back some baaaaaad memories!
Our first house was across the street from this one; I had LOVED this house since we came here and WANTED it. So we put House # 1 on the market...after I promised I'd never buy any more new clothes, would not want a new car in the next 15 years, etc. etc.
The sweetest little couple (with a new baby) wanted to buy our house but couldn't get all the financing needed. So we entered into this lease purchase deal with them. They paid a deposit equivalent to one month payment, along with the 1st month's payment. This was all done thru the closing atty, everything on the up & up.
Everything was just wonderful...for one month. It was neat seeing their little baby in our baby's old nursery...we'd get together for dinner & all that. "Life is good."
End of # 1 month: no $. Since we'd gotten friendly with them, hated to say anything at first. Finally a couple of weeks later DH "said something" and they said some funds they counted on were late coming in, and they expected it any day.
The days dragged by and still no $. They started avoiding us...she was not even working and here we were with not one, not two but FOUR mortgages. (DH had built a couple of spec houses, this was the roaring 80's.) The first two spec houses sold right away, so he built two more...
The same bank had 3 of our loans; a bridge loan till we put permanent financing on the new house, and the 2 spec houses. Anybody here remember October of 1987? Holy cow...the bank, which had treated us like royalty... got nervous about the spec houses which had NOT yet sold...and in spite of forking out hefty interest payments, the little twit from the bank kept calling wanting to know if the houses had sold yet. (DUH, didn't he think he would be the first to know??)
In the meantime, the sweet little couple with the baby got themselves a couple of BIG dogs...and just pranced in & out of the house, going here, going there as if nothing were out of the ordinary.
Middle of # 2 month, our realtor had a meeting with them...they cried and whined and said they couldn't afford the house & shouldn't have ever signed the LP, shouldn't have ever moved in, blahblahblah. And said they would move on out right away, and could not pay any more $.
I'll spare you the agonizing details of the next four months. Yep, FOUR months it took to get them out. I would look out my window and see HER over there rocking the baby on the porch in the swing...and here I am working a fulltime job AND worrying myself to death about these finances...GRRRRR! AND the twit from the bank kept calling. Felt like the d e v i l was chasing us or something!
FINALLY the spec houses sold & actually got closed; we didn't make what we did the first two times around but didn't lose anything & could put a little in the pocket. The best thing about this was not having to talk to the twit anymore, or so we thought...once we'd paid off the construction loans he started calling & whining about our bridge loan.
So...approximately 6 months after the sweet couple moved into our old house, the moving van FINALLY arrived. As soon as they were good & gone we went over there to check out the house...and...they had stripped it BARE. Outlet & switchplate covers, light fixtures, etc. GONE. These ppl had moved into a house that had just been renovated...needless to say we had to do a bunch of this ALLLLLL over again. (I won't go into what their dogs did to the inside of the house...) There wasn't any use trying to go after them legally because...obviously...there was no way to get any money out of them.
LSS: Fixed it back up again & were very blessed in that about a month later, it SOLD FOR REAL. Got rid of our bridge loan, got permanent financing on this house & WOOHOO, no more twit from the bank calling. No more sweet little couple.
After all that we decided we were better off with ONE house. ONE mortgage. AND no more LP's for us.
Whew! It's a good thing that time heals some wounds, isn't it!
Yikes! This is a very scary thread! It feels like "Buy Me" - sometimes I just can't bear to watch! But thanks for these amazing stories.
Peri, I just can't imagine how those people could have been so incredibly insensitive - and in your face. I guess all these stories show how the world is full of self-centered people to watch out for.
I am very glad these stories are all in the past for all of you and you're still standing!
Eeeeeeeek, do you suppose it is my sweet buyer from years ago all grown up?
(I'm sorry your deal feel thru...that one was unreal! It really looked like a body in the pool??? I would probably have had a heart attack on the spot!)
