Tuesday, December 05, 2017

The Saga of Selling Mom's House

I apologize for not answering previous comments or for not posting sooner. With Thanksgiving and such, things have been busy. But the real reason I have stayed away from the computer, is that I had very little data left for the month. Getting on the laptop requires me to turn on my hotspot, which uses up more data. In the past we had plenty of data, but someone is using more these days...Who am I to complain?

There is a little art show coming up. The deadline is Dec. 15.  I've been working to get things matted and framed and my bio written, etc. I have been encouraging Jesse to be a part of this show. She is going to do it, but the "follow thru" is more difficult. She is her mother's daughter. Procrastination is the game.

 We have also been working on selling my mom's house. What should have been fairly simple, has been made complex. The buyer wrote up a contract with her lender. Unfortunately there was something in the contract that was not okay - as in could be considered fraudulent. I called the buyer and said we could not sign the contract as written, but we wanted to help her as much as possible and meet her needs. She told me to talk to the lender who wrote the contract. The lender told me to just drop the last page (fraudulent part) and sign the contract as written. If I do that, then the buyer does not get what she wants - like repairs to the house. So we asked the buyer (and lender) to meet with the title guy to re-write the contract more agreeable to what she wanted in a legal way. She refused to meet, because her lender refused. Well yeah, what the lender was doing was not okay.

So yesterday I went to WF to meet my brother and the title guy and re-write the contract or discuss what we could do. At the last minute my brother called and said he could not meet after-all. What! So you are sending an art major to talk business and make deals - a dumb blonde whose eyes roll back in her head at the mere mention of escrow, fees, repairs, etc! But I did it! I met with the guy. He told me what he thought we could do, which was basically to sign the contract as written with a few minor changes. We would get our money, but the buyer would not necessarily get her repairs, (she had a chance to come and tell us what she wanted...) I came home and told Toby. In the midst of this, I'm getting messages that my Aunt Mildred (95 years old) fell and was in the hospital. I was texting other cousins to let them know. Then I found out that Aunt Mildred passed away. So I had to re-text the cousins. My brother called and I told him about Aunt Mildred and about the contract. He had lots of questions. Really? I was also getting phone calls from a friend trying to help me with the contract. When the phone settled down, I was worn out and went to bed.

With all that on my mind, I tossed and turned all night. It did not help that a cold front was blowing in and causing a ruckus outside. Plus, it was not really cold, so I was having hot flashes. I was glad to get up this morning. But then Toby told me he didn't think I should sign the re-written contract, he had lots of questions, and he wanted some other things written into the contract. Really?  I went into fight or flight mode - mostly fight.

With my emotions running high at this point, I think I will stop. We will continue this saga when I get it figured out.

5 comments:

Jo Castillo said...

Oh, my! I send you positive thoughts. Your strength will get you through, they say. Oh, sending hugs…. Bless you.

Jo Castillo said...

I meant to say I hope your show goes super fine. I’m glad Jessie is joining in. I drink coffee from my cup that Jessie made pretty often. I rotate cups I like. :)

Earnest Fail said...

Here's the deal. Give the buyer their Earnest money back, and say you've decided not to sell. Blow it off.

There's also Real Estate Agents. Costs more, but no stress.

Earnest Fail said...

I forgot to say, sell the house "as-is". Kind of figure what the repairs are, or you can have the Appraiser do that. Then sell it that way.

As-Is is an easier contract, and most Judges and Lawyers know what that means.

Bag Blog said...

Jo,
We got the house contract, finally. What a relief! And yes, having Jesse in the show will be fun.

Earnest Fail,
We pretty much did it the way the title guy said; The house as is. Geeze Louise what a hassle!