Watching Out for Ourselves and Our Clients

A true story….Could it happen to you?

It is the day before closing and the sellers just discovered that their agent neglected to point out the contract they were going to accept, included paying 3% of your buyers closing costs. But that’s not all! The
sellers agent also failed to discuss what the seller owed on the property, what a likely payoff would be, and what the seller could expect to receive (or in this case, bring to the table) at closing.

Your buyers are ready to move into their new home! They have been approved for weeks, have their cashiers check ready, gave notice on their rental, and the moving truck is packed. (It had to be, since their rental is already leased to new tenants) But we have a problem, the seller, now faced with needing to come to the closing with over $10,000 has said NO WAY..I’ll just give the house back to the bank .

What Happened?
Well in this case, the listing agent and brokerage forfeited their entire commission, and came up with an additional $2000 to avoid the likely litigation from the seller who did not receive reasonable care from their
experienced (10 plus years in the business!) listing agent, who failed to provide the seller with an estimated proceeds at the time they listing the property and when they accepted the offer, and who also failed to point out the obligation of the seller to pay the buyers’ closing costs on the offer presented and advised to accept.

BUYERS AGENTS What can you do? What if the seller and their agent had not come up with the $ and your buyer couldn’t buy the home?  Well you would be helping your buyers find an attorney, but how about a
check system so that this does not come up!  According to discussions with several Closing Agents form our local title companies, all agreed that IF ASKED, they would prepare preliminary HUD statements showing the sellers payoff and closing costs. If you are working with the buyer, but want to do everything possible to insure something like this never happens to your buyer, work with your closing agent and listing
agent, and ASK for estimated HUD statements when you open escrow!