The One In Which the Deal Almost Falls Through

28Feb07

Sometimes you and all your people (brokers, agents and lawyers, oh my!) can do everything in your power to make sure everything goes smoothly, and something still goes wrong. In this case, the problem centered around the seller. We were scheduled to close today at 1, but at the end of the transaction, the seller would still owe about $2000 to his mortgage company (that’s known as having to “bring money to close” and isn’t entirely common, but isn’t unheard of either). It’s a long story and I have few concrete facts, but it boils down to the seller being in financial trouble and having some past-due mortgage payments, which changed his loan pay-off amount.

To make matters worse, the fact that he needed money to close only came to light today. This wouldn’t have been a major problem if the seller hadn’t been unreachable. His own Realtor and closing attorney couldn’t get in touch with him (and they still can’t, to my knowledge). This completely derailed all of my plans, making me waste an entire day (and needlessly spend a day of vacation time) and stressing me the hell out.

All sorts of thoughts went through my head. What about the painting I wanted to do Thursday and Friday? What about the refrigerator scheduled to be delivered between 12 and 4 on Thursday? What if the deal doesn’t go through at all? What about all the money I’ve spent on inspections and setting up utilities and other services? What about the U-Haul I have reserved for Saturday?

Ultimately, since getting this deal done is in the best interest of everyone involved, a solution has been found. Both Realtors are taking a pay cut to cover the difference. This seems to be more than the seller deserves (he should have to pay his own bills, after all), but I am grateful for their generosity. Even my mortgage broker is taking a hit on this, swallowing the cost of re-drawing all the paperwork so we can close tomorrow.

Filed under: appliances, closing, home-buying, move-in, painting, stress   |  1 Comment