We have been clear to close since 9/6 and still no closing date. We got an email from our lawyer on Friday saying the sellers attorney still hasn’t received the mortgage payoff from the bank but thinks it’s going to be very high and is worried about the proceeds not covering the amount. How is it possible to get this far and then not know? The sellers attorney allegedly already ran numbers before our offer was even accepted on 8/6. They knew the seller had liens and a Covid Foreclose Forbearance. They bought the house in 2017 for 244k and the sale is 340k.
Our lawyer thinks they will accept the sale since it’s the best value the bank will receive if it is high. Thoughts on what is going on? We don’t want to lose the house but it’s not our responsibility to offer more money.
Not sure why I’m getting downvoted like I have done something I shouldn’t have. Everything has been through my lawyer and I’m asking if people have experienced this before and what path they might have taken or outcome they encountered.
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You can either play their games or walk away. You can’t play the role of doormat and be surprised when you are treated like one.
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That’s much easier said than done when you have invested a bunch of money to sell our current home and then the money you spend to close on your next home. We also made the lawyers get the numbers prior to the sale agreement getting signed. We aren’t going to offer them more money, we expect them to figure it out but I’m also not just going to walk away.
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I’m well aware of the type of situation you are in but when it comes down to it, the question is how badly do you want the home and what are you prepared to do to get it? I don’t blame you for not wanting to offer more money but there will come a point when you just need to cut your losses.
Something has to give. What is that something?
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Personal opinion: interest is accruing every day on the balance, in addition to penalties and late fees. It literally costs the seller more money to close tomorrow rather than today. Now if I were a complete and total cynic I’d say that a bank with a reputation for playing fast and loose with the law might be greedy enough to delay closing and pad that number.
That’s also how come the seller’s attorney is worried that the final payoff number might be so high there’s not enough to pay the bank, both lawyers, and any agents that might be involved.
I agree that you should under no circumstances offer more money. But I hope you haven’t given notice at your old place or scheduled movers yet, because your odds of closing are a coin flip.
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We have an early occupancy agreement setup and moved smaller things into the garage, cleaned the place up, generally small things but we delayed the closing of our current home (was set for 9/25) until we get a closing date on this one. We also sent a Time of Essence letter to escalate it. Legally a bank only has 7 days to produce a payoff and based on the 9/6 clear to close, the bank is being slow or the lawyer didn’t request the payoff immediately.
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