Hello everyone and Welcome to another
episode of Selling Greenville your
favorite real estate podcast here in
Greenville South Carolina I am your host
as always Stan McCune realtor here in the
upstate of South Carolina you have all
of my contact information in the show
notes as always should you need to reach
me for any of your real estate needs you
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and yeah let's get right into it I am
fresh off of a vacation to Mexico I went
to padel Carmen which is about an
hour outside of Cancun it was very nice
beautiful weather I got a little toasty
I'm a very white person in terms of
well in terms of of everything thing
so my skin did get burnt I looked
like a flag with a strange burn
pattern that I got but nonetheless
Mexico my first time there I I've
done a decent bit of travel in my
lifetime but it was my first time down
there I took my entire family with me
including a six-year-old and a
10-year-old we all had a blast I
highly recommend it and here I am I'm
back in the saddle this week I hope you
guys enjoyed the last few weeks of
episodes I actually recorded all of
those prior to my trip in order to
make sure that you guys did not have an
interruption of podcast episodes but
now here I am I'm actually recording
this on Wednesday which is a late day
for me to record this I'm going to
record it and then immediately upload it
and then hopefully you guys can
listen to it but I want to tell you guys
a story of a a listing that I just had
closed it closed while I was in Mexico
which was never supposed to happen
but nonetheless it it just closed and
it's an example of of a listing where
everything went wrong and I feel like I
need to put this out there for for
posterity and and when I say everything
went wrong this was nothing that I I
mean there's always things that you can
improve but I feel like I did a very
good job from a listing agent
perspective I feel like I did my part
and my clients did their part as well
they were more than amenable they were
great sour clients and so I'm not
trying to blame them the buyer agent
could have done some things better in my
opinion but she was also very amenable
as well this is an example in in which
there was a lot of things that went
wrong that were just outside of our
control and I just need to put this out
on the air this is going to be something
that I'll probably listen back to at
some point just to remind myself of the
crazy roller coaster that we went went
through but here's a way for you to see
what can happen all of the things that
can go wrong in a real estate
transaction this is why Realtors why
we get paid the big bucks right we we've
got to make sure these things get to
closing and sometimes that's harder
than others so to give a little bit of
background this is the listing that I
had at the beginning of this year okay
this is at the beginning of this year
we put this on the market it's a condo
a very cheap condo of course our our
condo Market here outside of luxury
condos is pretty cheap in the Greenville
area so this is a condo listed for
roughly
$160,000 and if you know anything about
the real estate market once you get
in this area below $200,000 on a listing
it gets squirely really fast and really
I would say even below 250 it's a
squirely market you get a ton of
first-time home buyers a ton of people
that are are barely able to squeak by
with their down payments their credit
score might not be that great you know
they can't afford very much home and so
it ends up being a unique Market that
you're having to deal with this below
200 below 250 but spec especially below
200,000 Market it is a very difficult
very squirely market and these are the
listings that I have to put the most
amount of work into by and large okay
anything below 250 I just know okay I'm
going to be earning my keep on this
so so we knew that or at least I knew
that going in so we listed now as you
would expect we got quite a bit of
activity it was a nice condo 160,000
which is what the market said it was
worth we get a decent bit of activity
not a ton of activity but you know
over the course of of the first few
days you know five six showing something
like that and we immediately get
three offers three very different offers
mind you one was an offer with an
occupancy agreement and a a very odd
contingency we'll get into the
contingency a little bit later but the
occupancy agreement is not my favorite
thing what that means is you're
basically giving the buyers occupancy
prior to closing and they have a fee
an occupancy fee that that you that they
have to pay to the sellers now we
don't call it rent there's a very
specific reason why we don't call it
rent is because it's not an actual lease
agreement and it's not establishing a
landlord renter type of arrangement
it is a fee that the buyer is paying to
the seller to allow them to get early
occupancy to the house we Realtors we
don't like those types of of agreements
because a lot can go wrong it's a lot
more work for all parties and so we
got that we got that offer we got
another offer that was with no down
payment they had a loan that allowed
them to to bring no down payment it
was an okay offer otherwise it it was
not at full price either which
again in a multiple offer situation we
want to get to full price at at the
very least for what we've got it
listed for assuming we have listed it
for more than it's worth which we didn't
in this case and then we got another
offer that was a little bit above the
list price and had kind of stronger
terms in general stronger it it was
just a stronger offer in every way than
the other than the other
offers well as we are reviewing all
of these offers and trying to trying
to come to a decision on what we're
going to do with all of them my
clients realized that they had left
something off the seller's disclosure
that was kind of a big deal they left
off the seller's disclosure that they
had knowledge that at least from a
past inspection they had done that their
chimney liner needed to be
replaced and they had not put that on
the seller's disclosure even though they
had kind of discussed that with me at
one point now reminder in South
Carolina I'm not allowed to give advice
on the seller disclosure that is a hard
and fast rule I can't put a pen to it I
can't make advice I can't tell people
how to answer questions that is a major
major no no that the South Carolina
Association of Realtors the greater
Greenville Association of Realtors my
brokerage every brokerage says this is
the rule okay that is for the sellers to
completely fill out on their own and if
they leave something out that's on them
and obviously I I I will review
things on on the seller disclosure and
I'm might say hey did you mean to say
this or did you mean to say that but
I usually try to give all of my advice
up front prior to them filling it out
well this was an example they had told
me that the fireplace was going to
convey Asis and so I actually put that
in the listing there's a section that
we call member remarks these are realtor
only this is a realtor only section
of the listing but Realtors always need
to review that section to see what it
says because there is some very
important information in there and so
one of those very important details that
I put in there was that the fireplace
conveyed as is so in my opinion the fact
that they had initially missed on the
sell disclosure about the chimney liner
wasn't that big of a deal because I had
already disclosed that the fireplace was
conveying as is to begin with
nevertheless when they brought it to my
attention it was like yes let's go ahead
and add that and we'll send that back
out to all of the other potential
buyers just for them to to to review
and to look at and so so we did we
sent that out to back out to all the
people that had made offers I I
explained to the agents what was
happening there and we have this offer
that is above list price and has
stronger terms than the others
they initial and and you know send
back that seller's disclosure
where they initialed the modification
but there was one very minor problem
with their offer and that was that they
had misspelled the seller's name so we
just had to sign everything so we we
fully ratified the contract but
technically it's not 100% ratified
unless that name is corrected and all
parties initial it so my clients we
corrected it my clients initialed it we
sent it back over to the to the buyers
to
to initial and then at that point it
would be fully fully ratified we would
go from 99% ratified to 100% this is
just a formality right this isn't a big
deal nevertheless it is a big deal
the contract would not be processed by
my office without that being initialed
and so we needed to get that
done so I I sent it over to them
and of course I waited to change
the status in the MLS to under contract
I'm still showing it as active and
and now we wait oh and and by the way I
had to obviously at this time I'm
required legally to send a form that
rejects the other offers we we had to I
had to send a form that says that I
presented all the offers and that the
two that we didn't like as much the one
with no down payment and not as good of
an offer the one that had the
occupancy agreement we had to reject
those all right so we rejected those and
now we're waiting to just get this one
final initial from the the potential
buyers of the house and so we wait and
we wait and we wait some more and the
buyer agent goes dark on me I'm trying
to reach the buyer agent I'm not hearing
anything it's starting to seem like
something is up this is a really bad
sign when an agent just that was
responsive just completely goes dark and
all of the sudden I start getting a
flurry of messages from her that
because the sellers did not disclosed
the chimney liner originally and because
in her opinion I had not put that the
fireplace conveyed as is in I had not
made that clear enough in the listing
even though I put it in the spot that we
always put it in that is the spot that
is the place in the MLS where you put
that information
um
she said that I didn't make that clear
enough from the get-go and on the basis
of all of that her clients they have had
to deal with fireplace Replacements in
the past and you know chimney line of
Replacements and tons and tons of money
they want the buyers to fix that
sorry they want the sellers to fix that
and and to remove that from the
seller's disclosure remove that from the
listing that it's conveying as is and it
was like no this was in the MLS from the
get-go it said the fireplace conveyed as
is it's your responsibility as a realtor
to go over that with your clients in
fact when I'm showing houses to my
clients assuming they give me enough
time to do all of this I will
print off the MLS sheet that actually
has those private remarks on it so they
can review that and they can see what it
says regardless
this all fell apart right from the
get-go because this agent failed to to
do her job of seeing that the fireplace
conveyed as is my the sellers were
not interested in that we had other
offers so it was just like okay well
it's falling apart from the get-go here
we go this is where it gets squirely at
this price
point so at this point now excuse me the
Home has been on the market for multiple
days and so and again remember I didn't
switch the status to under contract it's
still showing as active and so we've
now gotten a sense of of what the first
wave of showings looks like what the
first wave of offers looks like and
there's not a whole lot of activity
upcoming there's really like no activity
upcoming there's people making showings
and canceling showings and you know how
it is at this price point it it it
there's just a lot of of different
things that that you just have to be
prepared for and and it's like I said a
lot more work than than selling a more
expensive home in a lot of ways and
so now we're like okay there's not a
whole lot of other activity but we do
have these other two people that we
rejected offers for let's go back to
them so I I go back to them I discuss to
the other agents what happened the
agent representing the buyer with no
down payment that buyer just said forget
it we're not interested and that was
honestly going to be the one that we
were probably going to be the most
interested in they were just like no no
we're not messing around with this now I
was like okay that left us back with
one offer now this is the offer with the
occupancy agreement
now whenever I have I've had multiple
offers over the years on my
listings with buyers that have
occupancy
requests they want to gain
occupancy for the home prior to closing
and I explained this a little bit
just a few minutes ago but there's
obviously a major risk to doing this
obviously there's the risk in the worst
case scenario you have a situation where
the buyer is not able to get to
closing and now they already have
possession of the house now you have to
get them out of the house and what if
they don't leave the house then you
could possibly have to evict them there
there that is the nuclear scenario right
where you you have a situation where
you're now having to evict and and of
course it's this isn't exactly the best
time to evict either there's all
there's been all sorts of covid
loopholes and whatnot with evictions
that people have been able to use and so
the long story short we passed
through all of that and I had a lengthy
conversation with my clients about what
this would look like if we accepted it
at the end of the day they were like
you know what we don't really have a
whole lot of other activity we got that
first wave through and now we're not
seeing anyone else booking any showings
we should probably take the Bird in
Hand at this time and and there is one
there was one advantage to the occupancy
agreement for them there and sometimes
it can be a win-win and this case it
looked like it could have been one of
those instances of being a win-win which
was that my clients had already bought
the home that they were moving
into and they were carrying two
mortgages so they wanted to sell their
their condo ASAP but they had already
bought the home and we already in the
process of moving out of the condo and
so this was a possibility where rather
than you know having to float to
mortgages if they got this occupancy fee
from from the buyer now the buyer was
essentially paying for their mortgage
and giving them a little bit of extra
money in their pockets as well so there
were advantages to that there that
was something that looked like it had
the potential to be a win-win but there
was another little wrinkle to this offer
as well of course and that was that the
buyers were building a primary residence
in Somerville so apparently the buyers
it was a husband and wife team that were
lawyers and they they practice some law
or something here in Greenville we
never fully got the story straight but
they they had been renting short-term
rentals in Greenville they just wanted
to have they they do enough commuting
back and forth they just wanted to have
a second home here in in Greenville
but they were building a home in
Somerville and their lender told them
that they needed to close on the home in
Somerville prior to closing on the home
here in Greenville prior to closing on
on the condo
well I had some questions about that
not all of that made sense to me I
you know talked to the lender about it
the lender gave me a really glowing
report about the buyers and just said
Hey listen just it's going to mess
things up with them if we don't do it
this way and it was just like well
what's it going to mess up well I can't
really get into all of that but you know
it it would just they wouldn't get as
good of an interest rate on their main
home and that's their more obviously
a much more expensive home than this
$160,000 condo blah blah blah it it made
a little bit it made just enough sense
that it wasn't a major major red flag
but it was definitely a yellow flag it
was like okay and of course I just
relayed that information to my clients
and at the end of the day it was like
you know this is a
concern how do you feel about accepting
the risk here there there is there are
multiple risks with this offer and
another risk was they were saying the
Somerville Home was about two months out
from closing and that was because of
construction their construction had been
delayed because you know during covid we
have had tons of construction delays and
so there is going to be this situ
this scenario where maybe they weren't
going to be able to even close that
home on time and essentially they were
asking for a weird contingency that we
don't even have this in our contract we
had to to write this a certain way
into the contract but essentially that
they would not close on the condo
until they had closed on the home in
Somerville again
I talked all of that through I talked to
the lender the lender said very good
things said they were a very strong
client there were not going to be issues
with them closing
on the condo basically immediately after
closing on on the house in Somerville
they would be able to close on the condo
it'd be almost a simultaneous thing
everything sounded good there my
clients with the lack of showings and
whatnot and the lack of activity coming
up they were just like let's go for it
let's go for it we'll get that money
coming in you know for the next couple
of months which helps us to to pay
for that second mortgage that we have
yeah let's let's just go ahead and move
forward with it and kind of roll the
dice well of course the buyer agent
works for one of these like online
only brokerages which listen I don't get
into the politics of all these different
brokerages but let's say that when I see
an agent reach out to me I'm definitely
looking at what brokerage they're with
and I can immediately gain a sense of
for the most part how let me just say
it this way there are some stereotypes
with different brokerages in terms of
how competent the agents are and this
is an online only brokerage that does
not have a very good track record for
training their agents and the the buyer
agent had no idea she was in way over
her head in terms of the occupancy
agreement she didn't even realize there
was there was an actual form that
addressed this in in the South
Carolina Association of realtor forms
she thought she just had to write it
into the contract which that's not how
it work how it works
I had to help her with you know
structuring this weird contingency in
terms of them buying the home in
Somerville before buying the home the
condo here in Greenville I'm having
to do kind of double work which again
this is not unusual for homes in this
price point a lot of the agents working
in the space are newer agents as well
that is a very common aspect to it
that's something that again I signed up
for I signed up for when I took the
listing not not trying to complain about
that just trying to State the facts here
this is all part of the story all right
so shortly after going under contract
the buyers were granted occupancy we
had a a little bit of a delay from the
time we went under contract until you
know the the sellers had to completely
get their stuff out and everything plus
part of the agreement is that all the
inspections have to be completed ahead
of time by the buyer prior to gaining
occupancy because once they go into that
house they have to accept the house in
Asis condition so all inspections
repairs Etc have to be done prior to
them moving in because once they move in
if if if they damage anything or if
anything goes wrong once they moved in
that's on them they they are
essentially acting as a homeowner at
that point they are not renting it's not
the land landlord's responsibility there
is no landlord they are in the house as
buyers prior to buying that's how
legally at least the way I understand it
how it works so they have occupancy
but they again they live in like the
Charleston area so their plan was
only to to come over to to Greenville
sporadically like maybe a few days per
month it it wasn't a a hefty amount
of time that they spend in Greenville
um
but prior to us giving them full
occupancy and prior to them actually
coming into the condo things start
getting shipped over there large boxes
Furniture pieces all kinds of things and
remember this is a condo and it's like
caddy corner to the next door unit
it's it's a very interesting situation
where where two units kind of come
together at a right angle
and you know if both units open their
doors at the same time they'd hit each
other well you have all these boxes
showing up on the front porch
blocking both units essentially and
also just being out there for anyone to
take massive boxes and and so my
clients as they're still trying to move
out they're like what's the deal with
this we have all these boxes we're
having to move these in ourselves
and this keeps going for like a week
for like a week we're like having
massive boxes coming over here and and
apparently they they were ordered on
Amazon and there was supposed to be a
delay on them until after the buyer was
was there and had had been at the the
property but that's not at all what
happened we had more and more boxes
coming and there was like a week of
drama right off the bat and this is when
I knew this was not going to be good
this was not going to this was not could
to be a good
transaction now I had mentioned that
all the inspections and repairs and
everything had to be done in advance of
the
buyers having that occupancy agreement
go into effect
okay so they did they had their
inspections and all that well during the
inspection period it was discovered that
an outside closet so these condos they
have back decks and from the back deck
there's like an outside closet that's
like designed as like a little almost
like a little utility shed you can hold
you know yard equipment or whatever out
there things that you might need on
your back deck so the inspector had
gone in there and had discovered that
there was substantial water damage and
it was never noticed by me or the
sellers because they had all their yard
equipment in there and you had to it
wasn't until they had like removed moved
all that stuff out that it became very
apparent that there was some sort of a
leak with the roof or the siding or
something that had caused pretty
substantial water damage in
there and so now we're in a situation
here where obviously that's something
that needs to be repaired that's a
structural it was a structural type of
thing and a a moisture damage type of
thing that's covered in the repair
procedure if you've listened to my
past episode which I highly recommend on
the the weird aspects of the Greenville
contract we talk at nauseabout the
repair procedure because it's a quirky
part of the contract that we use here in
Greenville but something like this is
definitely a a covered item definitely a
seller paid repair as it states in
the contract language but but
remember this is a condo and as with
most condos the HOA was responsible for
exterior maintenance well what happens
when lack of exterior maintenance
causes interior damages whose
responsibility is that technically it's
the homeowner's responsibility to cover
everything from the walls in inside of
inside of the condo but this is a
weird situation where the HOA kind of
bore some responsibility as well they
have deferred maintenance things that
they did poorly with the roof and the
siding that caused the damages here but
at the same time the buyers did not
inform them in a timely manner of it so
a lot of of different things going on
here but the bottom line is even if
the sellers paid someone to do the
interior repairs we're getting tons of
rain at this time we don't want to do
the interior repairs prior to the HOA at
the very least during the exterior
repairs okay not to mention that we feel
like the I I felt like at least the HOA
is responsible for all of it it's not
even clear you know in the bylaws I look
through the bylaws for this community
it's not even clear if those
exterior closets if the interior of them
is even considered part of the
homeowner's responsibility to begin with
it the whole thing was very unusual
nonetheless we went ahead and had our
contractors go out there and get get
quotes which were for several
thousand I arranged for a few different
contractors to look at it they they said
it would be several ,000 to do the
repairs the HOA in pretty timely
manner sends their own contractor out
there he also says this is going to be
like a full rebuild of these closets
and and by the way that closet was
connected to the neighbor's closet
again just the way they constructed
these condos and so
long story short it it's looking like
it's going to be expensive but the HOA
hasn't committed to anything and
after that contractor goes out there
we don't hear a whole lot from the HOA
for for a
while so in the meantime we went
ahead and and did the other repairs okay
we're we're kind of waiting to figure
out this thing with the HOA but there
are a few other little repairs that need
to be done I helped my clients
obviously they didn't have any
handymen or contractors I helped to
arrange that for them get those repairs
knocked out and now we have the the
back and forth with the HOA trying to
decide what they're going to do we we go
ahead and give the buyers occupancy
because we're at that point now but
we have kind of an exception on there
that they're gaining occupant
accepting the property as is but at the
same time knowing that the closet is to
be repaired prior to closing and I've
informed the buyer's agent she
understands what all is going on on over
there but now we're waiting on the
HOA and they won't give us an answer and
all of our Communications this whole
time with the HOA is through the HOA
property manager not anyone on the
HOA board itself and and some HOAs are
like this some are better than others in
this way this HOA not very good I'm I'm
just going to come out and say it it was
not a good experience at no point did we
ever communicate with someone from the
board itself all Communications was
through the HOA manager who is basically
operating as a middle middleman it was a
woman but a we'll just use that term
middle person we'll go with that
she was operating as a middle person
here I have over a hundred emails back
and forth with this lady going back and
forth over things related to the HOA it
was insane phone calls emails messages
a tremendous amount of back and forth
I don't know how many hours I put into
this listing but I I got paid way
below minimwage in terms of the
amount of time that I put into it and
so here we are we're actually
starting to get close to the closing
date and we're getting updates from the
buyer agent that hey the windows have
been put in hey the sheetrock has been
done again with the house in Somerville
hey they're doing painting today so
the house in Somerville is looking like
it's actually going to close on time
which is a little bit surprising in some
ways we were really concerned about that
but now we have this other big wild card
here in Greenville that we never
anticipated happening which is that
we're getting close to the closing date
but the HOA they haven't even met to
discuss the closet and they're telling
us oh we're going to meet next month we
have a we have a monthly meeting we're
tabling this until next month it's like
we have a closing date your
responsibility as an HOA is to serve
your the people in your community this
is and can can you not have a a zoom
meeting to discuss this everyone is
having Zoom meetings right now like you
have to wait for a month to have an
in-person meeting to discuss it and
you've already had the contractor come
out and all of that it was
unbelievable
unbelievable so again all of this is
going on in the background we're getting
close to what we believe to be the
closing date close to the closing date
in Somerville and then we have the
closing date for this condo here in
Greenville for a few days after that
because that was what the lender told us
that they would do well at some point
in the process of all of of all of this
going on I'm discussing just the
status of everything with the buyer
agent how the house in Somerville is
going and she mentions in passing that
the buyer is now going to actually
purchase the condo with cash and it's
like oh okay we you we kind of
needed to know that and I need proof of
funds that the buyer can actually do
this and so the buyer's agent was
like okay okay yeah yeah yeah I'll I'll
get you proof of funds and again she was
she was responsive very responsive buyer
agent just didn't fully understand how
the process works so she sends me
proof of funds that the buyer can in
fact purchase it with cash okay that's
fine no problem I am more than happy
with the cash purchase versus having the
the financing issue the potential
issues of
financing however we knew it wasn't
going to be that easy a week later
suddenly the buyer no longer wants to
purchase with cash her reserves would be
way too low if she did that she wants
to finance the deal again go back to
financing however now she wants to
change lenders it's starting to get
really fishy really
fishy so we discussed I discussed with
the buyer agent I discuss it with my
clients I talk to the
lender I need something from the lender
that says that he can actually do this
deal it turns out he tells me that the
previous lender of course who knows if
this was true or not he may have just
been trashing them because you know he
was trying to pump himself up but he
said that the previous lender did not
know what they were doing that they were
not going to be able to provide
financing for them which may very well
be true the way it went down but that
he thinks that he can provide
financing for them but he's not willing
to put anything in writing no
pre-approval letter or anything until
they close on the house in Somerville
and then once they Clos on the house in
Somerville he should be able to do it
pretty quickly after that give us a
pre-approval letter well again remember
we have a few days after after the
closing is supposed to happen in
Somerville until our closing is supposed
to happen here in Greenville so that
should give him enough time to get it
done
right well the long story short is
no that was not enough time they closed
in Somerville and now we are a few
days prior to closing we still don't
have any commitment from the lender that
he can actually Finance the deal so we
have to push the closing out we just do
it a few days we we need to actually see
that this buyer can actually get
pre-approved for financing before we
extend this contract by any lengthy
period of time we don't want to extend
it by 30 days and then immediately find
out oh they can't actually get financing
well this lender was like oh sorry
I'm really busy we're trying to get it
done I've got underwriting doing this
I've got this happening this happening
and so now we're in this waiting game
with with both the HOA and now also the
lender so we have to and oh and by
the way remember that the buyer has
occupancy in the condo at this point and
if this all falls through now the
buyer has 30 days we have to give them
notice 30 days to vacate and
hopefully that all goes smoothly
remember in the nuclear scenario we
could have to evct and all of that they
have 30 days to vacate and then at that
point point we start the process all the
way back over again with putting it back
on the market and all of that we don't
want to do that nobody wants to do that
and so we really really everyone
wants to have this buyer purchase the
home and so we agreed to the a
shortterm extension and finally during
that period the lender I I think we had
to extend it twice for just like a
couple of days because the lender was
taking so long it normally takes you
know one of my lenders can get someone
pre-approved in hours I mean we're
talking hours it took him a week to get
them pre-approved now what he said was
that he was doing some pre-writing which
I have heard of of that is something
that lenders will do sometimes just to
be
100% certain that they can Finance the
deal but again it doesn't usually
take this long there was something else
going on there that he wasn't telling us
but finally finally after a couple of
extensions short extensions he says
okay I can do it but it's going to take
me a couple of months to close out the
loan for us to actually get to closing
and I'm like a couple of months if it
again if this were one of my lenders
they would have been pre-approved same
day and we could get this closed in two
to three weeks I mean we've done
everything the only thing that hasn't
been done is underwriting the appraisal
and those don't take that
long so nothing really makes sense I
mean we have a lot of things that aren't
making any sense but it's like what do
we
do we either go with this extend for we
we compromised we decided let's extend
for 45 days that should give you plenty
of time maybe that'll put a fire under
the lender we can always do another
extension we'll extend for 45 days
and we need to get this done during that
during that time period and and reminder
the buyers are paying that occupancy
during this time so it's it's not like
my clients are losing money they're
actually gaining some money during this
time and additionally we are waiting
on the HOA as well so in some ways there
are some advantages to this being
delayed if if it hadn't been delayed you
know we would have had to figure out the
situation with the HOA which was
completely
nonresponsive and we there was a lot
of stuff there might have been money
that would have had to been held back at
closing who knows what would have had to
happen in that situation and so in some
ways there was a little bit of relief
that was like okay this buys us some
time to get everything with the HOA and
with this exterior Closet in order
and so we take the lesser of two evils
go ahead and and extend this out for
several more
weeks well meanwhile now now we're in a
waiting game again hundreds of emails
are being sent I mean I have sent
probably email correspondents
probably on the verge of of 3 to 400
emails between
the HOA the attorney and the lender
and the buyer agent I mean we have
hundreds of emails going on I'm working
on this several hours every
week but now we're in a waiting game
we're trying to we're trying to you
know get right now our main focus me and
the sellers are getting that exterior
closet figured
out while we're we waiting and again the
HOA is still rebuffing us I get a
call from the next door neighbor who I
don't know she I don't know where she
got my information from she must have
tried looked up who the listing agent
was and and contacted me and she
said she's angry she was like there has
been loud music playing in that condo
since yesterday all through the night I
didn't sleep last night I am ticked off
and it was like oh boy okay let me
see what's going on here now you know
it's it's kind of like another Twist on
the situation we had before when we had
boxes just showing up over there so I
called the buyer agent she was like
they're not even in town right now so
she has to go over there and it turns
out there was like some kind of like an
an alarm a loud music alarm that went
off and was just constantly playing and
I I don't even know I don't even want to
know like what what kind of an alarm
just goes on for 24 hours but in any
event we had to put that fire out
finally while all of that is
happening finally the HOA
meets and their decision is that they
need more time I feel like I I just
recently rewatched the Lord of the Rings
and if you've watched The Lord of the
Rings or read the books it similar in
this regard that you get the situation
in the second book where you've got
these ant which are like these old trees
and they're really slow and they talk
they're trying to decide if they're
going to go to war to help the good guys
to help the fellowship if we're going
to be specific and they talk for a
really really long time and then at the
end of of all of this discussion it's
like okay what did you guys decide and
they're like decide we didn't decide
anything we just said hello that was
what the HOA was doing it was like they
were they had just decided to say hello
so they said they still needed more
time to to make a decision well I guess
the only Silver Lining if there was a
silver lining is that we had more time
so it's like okay at at least they met
that is a very very small moral Victory
they met we know it's on their radar we
do have more time and so again
we're we're just keeping the back and
forth going with them trying to keep
that conversation
alive about a month later okay so now
we're a few weeks from the new amended
closing date about a month
later I get that dreaded phone call the
buyer has run into additional financing
issues and again the lender is really
mon what happened I mean I thought
that he had done pre- underwriting this
there's should have been no situation
where the buyer ran into additional
financing issues so I don't know what
all was going on with them they said I
got some excuse at one point about why
they changed from a cash deal to a
finance deal that they had like a $ 30
or
$40,000 tax hit that they didn't
realize they were going to have who
knows I I don't know what all was going
on but the lender is Mom on what
happened but now the buyer's mother
so originally it was a husband and wife
team well now it's just the wife now the
the wife the woman's mother now has to
come on the loan in order to make this
deal work so this is all going downhill
really fast now we still have a few
weeks to get it closed out which should
be enough time to to get it done but oh
no no no no no no it's not enough time
not for these people
and you know at this point it's like
oh we're probably three or so weeks away
from one we're supposed to close and
again I have closings that happen all
the time in three weeks you go under
contract and 3 weeks later you're Clos
and that's with financing so that should
be plenty of time for everything to
happen but I've noticed you know we've
been under contract a while now and
with this new lender and I haven't seen
an appraisal come through I haven't
seen it been ordered or anything and
there's not really any reason to delay
it so I reach out to the lender and he's
like oh yeah let me check on
it I don't hear anything I reach back
out to the lender radio Silence about a
week later he says sorry I was on
vacation let me work on this now it's
like well must be nice to to go on
vacation just completely check out do
you not have people in place that can
order an appraisal for you
and now at this point the
appraisal because a lot of appraisers
are backed up now at this point the
buyer has to pay for a rushed appraisal
so the buyer actually had to pay
additional money because of it looks
like the lender's incompetence I'm
guessing that there that the buyer was
complicit in it in some way because I'm
sure I would assume that they would have
been angry about having to pay the extra
fee if it you know was entirely the
lender's fault but nonetheless now
we're waiting on the appraisal we're
still waiting on the HOA now we're
waiting on the appraisal now we have
this other variable with with the mom
being on on the loan it's a it's a
mess and now it's like when is this
appraisal going to happen so now we're
about a week and a half prior to
closing the date that we think we're
supposed to close on the appraisal still
hasn't even I haven't even seen the
appraisal come in the lender has told us
that the appraisal has been ordered I
haven't seen any requests for the
appraiser that the lender told me on
Monday he was like you'll be hearing
from the appraiser at any point now
Tuesday comes by Wednesday comes by I'm
reaching out to the lender I haven't
heard anything from the app from any
appraiser Thursday Friday comes by still
no appraiser scheduling anything
Saturday I'm at Artis feere which if
you're not from Greenville artist feere
is a big art event that we have every
year with artists from local artists and
also artists from really all over the US
really fun event outdoor event you get
to look at a lot of cool art different
exhibits and I'm there with my family we
this year you had to to pay just to
enter which is not normally the way it
is and there was all sort sorts of
social distancing we had a limited
period of time a very limited period of
time that we could be there under our
single
ticket so I'm at artist feere and I
get a notification on my phone that the
that the apprais
is going to happen the same day while
I'm at Artisphere I actually I got that
notification I should clarify I got that
notification prior to artist feere that
the appraisal was going to happen during
artist feere great I I go ahead and I
let the buyer agent know hey just so you
know at 4:00 today the appraisal is
the appraiser is supposed to be going
over there just in case the the buyers
were over there you know because
again we've given them
occupancy so that's that I'm happy
we're finally starting to see something
get
done so again I'm at artist feere it
was like 3:00 to 5:30 on on that
Saturday and you know I know that at
4:00 it's supposed to the appraisal is
supposed to happen so I get a
notification on my phone the lock box
around like 4:15 or something like that
that the lock boox was opened by the
appraiser okay great great good deal a
few minutes later I get a phone call
from an 864 area code and I'm like oh
crap what is about I I knew I knew it
wasn't good right because when you have
something like that happening I was
already on high alert but when when you
have something like that
happening and and you get that phone
call from a number that you don't
recognize and but the number kind of
registered with me and I realized this
is the appraiser calling me because I
had seen that number when they made the
initial request and I had to to do the
appraisal I had seen that phone
number it clicked with me oh crap this
is the appraiser what went wrong and so
I answer I step aside it's loud there's
like music and I mean it's loud I'm here
with my family outside of artist feere I
step aside the appraiser is like I'm
I open the lock box there's a key in
there I can unlock the deadbolt but I I
can't unlock the knob I can't get into
this house and it was like well the knob
wasn't supposed to be locked that was
something that the that was
specifically in the MLS that was
something we didn't have a key for it
you know how how it is sometimes people
will change a one lock and not change
the other and then they'll lose one of
the keys and so then they just will stop
locking one of the locks well that was
was the case here but of all things the
buyer had inadvertently locked the
doorknob and now we can't get into
the condo and the appraiser is like well
I've got bad news for you I have a
deadline to get this done in the next
few days but if I can't get into this
today then I'm not going to be able
to come back for at least another couple
weeks I am booked solid for the next 2
to 3 weeks
and I was like
well this has been I I'm actually
telling her this I was like this has
been the most nightmare scenario for my
clients we have gone through the ringer
with the lender with the HOA with
everyone we've been under contract for
months I don't I don't see how we could
possibly have this appraisal delayed
another two to three weeks is there
anything else you can do she was like
I'm sorry there's really nothing else
that I can do but if you can get me into
here here's what I'm going to do I'm
going to go to my next appraisal that I
have done it's my last one of the day
it's about 30 minutes away it won't take
me very
long I can come back after that in about
an hour if you can get the condo open
for me in an hour then I will be able
to get the appraisal done on time for
you so again a I apologize that this I
knew this was going to go for a long
time and you can can stop listening at
any time if you want this is just for
posterity this is just for posterity
people
I call the I call the buyer agent and
I'm
like what what happened here do they do
are your clients nearby anywhere can
they unlock this like we have to get
this appraiser in and the buyer agent
well she actually didn't answer she was
not able to answer she texted me she was
like I'm sorry they're not even in
Greenville right now they're they're
back in Charleston I don't know what to
do and here I am again I'm standing
aside from Artisphere while my my family
Waits on me and I'm just like there's
only one solution I can think of here
outside of like kicking the door down
which obviously no we're not going to do
I have a good relationship with a
locksmith who has been very very and
apologies if you've heard this story
before this part of the story but I
have a locksmith that has been
exceptionally responsive for me in the
past I wouldn't even consider him if it
wasn't for the fact that there have been
times where I have called him to to
change out locks for me and he's done it
like in a matter of a couple of hours
and I'm like this is the Hail Mary of
hail Mar's right five it's now 5:00 P
p.m. on a Saturday and I'm gonna call
a locksmith and ask him hey can you get
out to a property and break into a
property in the next 30
minutes whatever it's my job I call the
locksmith and I'm like listen I'm really
sorry to bother you on a Saturday night
and I'm and I'm sure this is a crazy
request and I don't expect you to to
feel obligated to do it but I need you
to get into a condo for me within the
next 30 minutes called him the general
location can you do it and he this guy
he's from New Jersey just like me so
we have that you know good good Jersey
communication between us and and he
was like oh yeah sure I'm just watching
TV I'll head over there right
now and literally he was there in 30
minutes and open the door and we got the
appraiser in and that is like the entire
time this is like the first time that
there's actually been good news it was I
was shocked I could not believe that it
worked out I have never had in my career
as a realtor my previous career in
ground transportation we had crazy
things like that but in my career as
a realtor I have never had a
locksmith go ASAP out to a property or
or anything like that to pull
something off like that it was it was a
win that I was very proud of and and
honestly the appraiser was pretty proud
as well she sent me a text message that
she was very impressed that I was able
to to figure out a solution and then we
get some more good news right it's
starting to pile up the HOA had
consulted an attorney so this is like
the next day or maybe Monday we we get
news that the HOA had consulted
gotten legal
Consultants legal guidance and
that their attorney had told them you
need to do the entire repair and so our
waiting paid off the HOA now agreed to
do the entire exterior and interior
repair
but but of
course I'm at this upcoming this next
week coming up okay I'm at another
closing and I get a call from my seller
client now they only call me usually
when it's an emergency and so it was
like oh boy what what happened now
I'm out of closing so I can't answer I
text them hey can I call you back and
they send a frantic text back that the
HOA had sent their contractor over to do
the repairs they had started the repairs
and that the buyers had been rude to
them and that the contractors were
threatening to leave the work
undone I was like what how could this H
how could this happen none of this makes
sense and so again I'm at of closing and
I'm not you know I can't just step out
of the closing there were some things
going on there as well that we were
waiting for and so I text the buyer
agent she gets in a hold of the buyers
they aren't even in
Greenville and so I relay all of this to
my clients they they head over to the
condo they were like 20 minutes away
from there they head over to the condo
it turns out that it was the next
door neighbor who remember the closets
these exterior closets are attached and
apparently when she saw people back
there working on on the closet she
assumed that it was someone that
would be a threat to her
and I don't know if she called the cops
or whatever the case was but was not
pleasant did not act nicely with them
got them upset they almost left the job
site thankfully my client was able to
to smooth it over with everyone in in
the situation where I couldn't be there
and and they were able to work it out
and the contractor was able to do
what they needed to do without further
inent incident however we are still
waiting on the actual appraisal to get
done remember that was one thing that we
were waiting on now we're still waiting
on the appraisal when an appraiser when
they when they go in and they do
their walk through and take their
pictures and measurements and all of
that that's not the end of the the
situation they still have to write up
their report and run the comps and do
all of this
stuff so they do finally after a few
days they send it in and lender confirms
we've gotten the appraisal but it's on
the wrong form I have no idea they they
never gave an explanation for what
happened there but their underwriting
rejected it it was on the wrong form
additionally I find out at the same time
by means of an email that the lender
sent to the HOA manager they said here
here's what they said in their email to
the HOA manager your records because
they had to to get records from the HOA
your records do not show sufficient
Reserve funds and your budget does not
budget sufficiently for for reserves
please send over a new budget showing
that you will be putting at least 10%
of your dues into reserves the HOA is
not going to do that they're not going
to change their budget just for this
deal to go through and the fact that
they didn't have enough reserves I mean
most condo communities don't have
enough reserves now there are the
these are federal requirements for
situations when people are are
purchasing a condo with less than 20%
down there does need to be a minimum
Reserve Fund in the HOA none of us knew
that they didn't have that and so
here we are we are days before closing
now we find out the appraisal is on the
wrong form and the HOA doesn't have
enough Reserve funds they're not going
to be able to come up with that out of
thin air they're not going to be able to
change their budget on a
whim and so now it's like are we even
going to be able to get to closing like
we got all this to this point is this
going to be the the final thing that
causes us to not be able to get over the
finish line and by this point once I
talk to my clients about this they've
had enough they have a long conversation
with me that was they were heated not at
me not at anyone except for maybe the
lender but they were just heated
about the situation they were just like
we've had enough we're going to extend
this for one more
week and if if it's not closed within
that week we're we're willing at that
point to cut ties and we'll go through
the process of of kicking the buyers out
and all of that but we need to just
get this done we have been under
contract for months and and I totally
understood you know it was like I told
them listen I I completely get where
you're from where you're coming from
there is a point at which you need to
draw the line here and it seems like
we're really close to it it you know
what I didn't want to do was was to draw
that line like when if we were really
going to be one or two days away from
closing but that's the thing is that we
kept feeling like we were so close to
getting this done and things just kept
happening so you have to draw the line
somewhere well
naturally I have a vacation that has
been planned for several weeks in Mexico
as I already referenced earlier in
this podcast and so this closing
now we are basically extending it for it
to close while I'm in Mexico so it's
like well what could go wrong there you
know
while I'm in Mexico finally we get
confirmation and and I haven't even
given all the details but there was like
the appraisal was red redone and
rejected by underwriting like three or
four times there was like a two we
period of like because artist feere
was several weeks ago if you look at if
you look at the calendar when Artisphere
was it was like the beginning of of May
if I remember correctly and during
that entire time period this closed on
Friday okay this house it it did finally
this condo finally closed on Friday but
basically for almost a month we were
going back and forth between the lender
was allegedly going back and forth with
underwriting and the appraiser trying to
get it on the right
form in the 11th Hour the appraisal was
accepted an exception was made for the
HOA to have insufficient Reserve funds
which I I don't know how they pulled
that off but more power to them and
while I was actually on like an
Excursion which if you've ever
been out to some of these tropical
areas they have these excursions that
you can do where you get off your Resort
and whatnot while on an Excursion in
Mexico I get a text from my client
that everything this past Friday had
been signed and we made it and we got to
the finish
line that is the wild ride of a listing
where everything goes wrong I have it
out there it will be out there in the
public domain for me in the future to
relist to this will be a reminder this
is like me putting up a memorial here
here is the memorial to this listing
where everything went wrong even though
we did our best in every possible way
sometimes your best it it still it takes
two to tango the buyer and the seller
both have to work together and and I
think that the the thing that really
made this one difficult was the lack of
communication there is a severe lack of
communication with the lender and us
with the buyer and us and that really
was the the the big biggest challenge I
still don't feel like we ever got the
full story despite me really pressing
them for it we never we we got a lot of
answers that were basically meaningless
on any of the questions that we
asked so I've tried to reflect on what
I've learned from this experience and
and again this podcast has gone on for
really long so I'm not going to drag
this out but real
quickly I I feel like we did the best
that we could with what we had but I
think the main thing in this situation I
would do over my main takeaway
is that when the the buyer switched
lenders I had I had actually thought
about this and had actually strongly
encourag hey we need you to use a local
lender if your lender over there in
Charleston area didn't work the first go
around how are we going to be guaranteed
that this new lender in Charleston will
work out it's always best to have a
local lender because that's someone that
I can go visit I can go look at them
face to face and say what is going on
here why are we not going to closing
they are motivated they know they're
going to brush shoulders with me they
know they're going to see me at
networking events there is a pride in
getting the deal done and getting it
done smoothly and getting it done on
time and there's a
motivation because we are local we're
all in it
together and I really encouraged the
buyer agent have when they switch
lenders have them switch to someone
local I made recommendation for who they
should do but at the end of the day you
can't you can't really mandate to the
buyer who to who they use as their
lender that's not really how it works
but I think there there is kind of a
work around here that in the future I
think that I will utilize if I'm ever in
this kind of a situation again which is
that basically not to encourage my
clients if there's a situation where
lender being change to someone out of
town and we need to extend the contract
because of that that we're not going to
extend the contract unless they switch
to a local lender that we know I think
if we had done that I think that the
entire process would have been smoother
I wish that the buyer agent really that
was the buyer agent responsibility I
wish that she had that she had seen
that that she had realized that that she
could have come through in that
moment I understand that her clients
had this guy that they wanted to use for
whatever reason but it is what it is
that is my main takeaway I'm glad it's
over I am glad this one is over every
year we have you know every year I have
something like this where there is you
know a a deal that's out of your control
that just takes a lot longer than it
should and is a lot more difficult than
it should be this one was the one and
hopefully the only one for this year if
you've listened all this point to the
end thank you I appreciate you I hope
you enjoyed it I I hope it doesn't
discourage you from selling your home
hopefully it helps you to see that we
can work through every possible issue
this one had every possible issue and we
worked through it thank you guys for
listening my contact information is in
the show notes leave the show a rating
or a review hopefully both and until
next time I hope you guys stay safe
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