Dick and Linda are friends I visit with during coffee hour at our church. They have relocated across the country for years with their jobs and buy fix-it-upper homes. They are selling their home that they have owned for five years, and will close on their retirement home in Tennessee on Friday afternoon.
Dick and Linda have always been cash buyers, so their end of real estate transactions are always trouble-free. Things are tougher now for Buyers because mortgage lenders are very cautious; but add a VA mortgage into this scenario.
The Buyers for Dick and Linda's home are a delightful young couple expecting their first child. The husband is a Veteran, so they were using their VA mortgage benefits. They have a well-seasoned and very experienced Michael Saunders agent and co-worker of mine, so the issues that Dick and Linda encountered through this transaction could have happened to anyone getting a mortgage.
This home had the finest upgrades and was perfectly maintained. Dick and Linda did everything I asked them to do: they got an appraisal, roof inspection, and reduced the price after 30 days. After the price reduction, we had multiple offers so Dick and Linda chose the best of the two.
Since I had not been involved in the VA mortgage process, I knew little about the responsibilities of the Sellers through this process, except to advise Dick and Linda that most Sellers don't want to deal with VA mortgages--which is absolutely unfair to our Veterans! So I called my broker on that Friday night the offer came in and she said that VA loans are not the nightmare they have been in the past., fear not. Sellers are generally responsible for certain items like inspections and appraisal, and we could put a cap on those expenses. We capped Seller's contributions towards Buyers fees at $1,000, listing exactly what the Seller would pay at closing.
I later learned that there are lender's fees that Sellers pay, as stated on the VA Addendum to the contract; however, since no one could say how much those fees may be, I struck out those lines on the VA Addendum to the contract and everyone initialed. Dick won't sign an agreement with open-ended fees, which I learned from going over the listing agreement line-by-line with him and striking out certain provisions.
The Buyers asked for 88 days to close, which was fine with the Sellers because they needed time to find their new Tennessee home and get ready for this move. The inspections were done and minor things repaired. There was an instant connection between the Buyers and Sellers and the Buyers were invited to a neighborhood picnic to meet their new neighbors. Linda and Dick left them nice pieces of furniture, exercise equipment, and even a television that they knew would be appreciated.
Life was good - until the second termite inspector came back, as required by the VA. Termite inspections must be within 30 days of closing because termites also find new homes and start families. The new inspector from the company that did the first termite inspection thought he saw something that was not an issue and not even termite-related, but everything was resolved. Dick and Linda were not happy with that second termite inspection, and rightfully so! Both agents were there and we explained that this is government red tape, we would get through this.
Fast forward to this week: Dick and Linda had their home in Tennessee under contract, are packed and ready to go, the movers are on the way, and they would pre-sign their documents. Their closing agent worked hard Monday afternoon, Memorial Day, to get the settlement statement prepared. I returned it once for a minor error and then loaded all the numbers into Excel for Dick and Linda so we could see their bottom line without crunching numbers if there were more adjustments on the final closing statement.
The closing agent sent an email to me Monday night saying that that she would finalize the statement the next day once the lender provided their fees. ONE MORE SHOW-STOPPER...IT'S IN THE CONTRACT THAT THE SELLERS WILL PAY ONLY $1,000 FOR ITEMS SPECIFIED IN THE CONTRACT. That was all finally confirmed with the lender just a few hours before Dick and Linda headed over to Berlin Patten Ebling law firm to sign the papers.
As my Tennessee grandmother would say, "Lord have mercy!" We were walking out the door of Dick and Linda's to sign the papers and, I got a phone call. The underwriter saw something in the appraisal about the neighborhood having a private road. Who pays for the road repairs and replacement? "We need a written agreement." And Dick and Linda said, "WHAT'S NEXT????" Linda is on the Board for the Homeowners Association and explained that it is a private road, it has been patched a few times, and there is $250,000 earmarked in reserves for replacement when that time comes. Not good enough! Underwriter wants a written agreement!! I told Dick and Linda that the closing attorney would figure this out.
We arrived at the Law Firm of Berlin Patten Ebling in Venice, Florida, and were seated in the conference room, very nervous, and I prayed, asking that God would take control of the situation so Dick and Linda could close this transaction. Attorney Benjamin DeMarsh came in and said that they had another attorney writing the private road agreement, so everything was on track. He happened to live in that neighborhood a few years ago, and knew all about that private road. What are the chances? :-) Dick and Linda signed the papers, and before leaving, Attorney DeMarsh said he had just learned that there was no agreement needed since the provision for the private road was included in the homeowners association documents. And THIS is why I love to have attorneys close my transactions.
Update June 1: Dick and Linda arrived and close on their new home this afternoon. The Sellers graciously offered to let them move their furniture in the home yesterday after the moving van arrived. They were a little surprised that although they left their barstools in their Florida home for their Buyers, the Sellers wanted $150 for theirs. Dick and Linda passed...oh well, nothing is perfect! The sweetest part of this story is that Tennessee is Linda's home and Dick was working in Seattle when he traveled there and met her through her job. They fell in love and she relocated to be with him in Seattle, and then to New Mexico, and then Florida. Her dream was to return to Tennessee one day, and Dick has brought her back home.
Please see my home page www.LindaHrealtor.com for more information on home buying and selling and other blog posts at www.LindaHrealtor.com/blog
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