Posted by Rick Harmon on May 14, 2010 at 10:40:43:
Hopefully, you have identified all the factors here, however there could still be ones that are not known to you.
The biggest issue that see here is not the attorney acting as a deal killer but that they are other decision-makers that you either didn’t know would an influence or that their concerns were never fully addresed from the beginning.
Dealing with families with this kind of situation in particular is tough, at best. You never know discussion they had in your absence. It might have taken just one spouse to put a bug in someone else’s ear.
If you are the buyer, you should be the one preparing the terms (and docs) of a purchase money note, hence control whether or not there’s any recourse. In my State (CA) all residential puchase money is non-recourse.
You probably didn’t make any big errors, however addressing concerns by all parties is essential. We can armchair quarterback your deal, but in the end, it just didn’t fly.
If it were me, I would try one more last time to get the family together and see if you can salvage something, knowing what your upper limits are. Let them explain to you what they’re really worried about. Share with them what terms will or won’t work and why. Sounds like you’re trying to make it cashflow so short terms profits aren’t the issue like flippers have.
Most everyone makes all decisions on emotions and then tries to support them with logic, real or flawed. Your attitude and persistence will continue to be invaluable assets.
Lost deal due to Sellers atty - what went wrong? - Posted by chris
Posted by chris on May 13, 2010 at 17:32:07:
Vacant house - daughter and son are handling sale for mother in nursing home. Was listed 6 months and expired.
I offered payments -10years at the price they named 0 interest- only way it made sense for us otherwise price is way too high.
2 siblings are in their 60s - one in area and one across the country.
Spouse of one of the siblings talked with their atty (expected) but then calls back and said they were told they would have no recourse if I didn’t pay. In addition they were told they would have a problem foreclosing due to the buyer(me) being out of state. The contract stated there would be a purchase money note with the property as collateral.
I used lou browns purchase contract. I had fully explained to sellers (and they did understand) that they would hold a mortgage and get payments and they said “if payments are not received we would foreclose.”
I ended up calling the attorney because I wanted to hear for myself that there is no recourse when it was in the contract. Then the atty said to me he didn’t see the contract but why wouldn’t I do a land contract. I explained I didn’t want difficulty if there was a death with one of the sellers. I then said the deed could be held in escrow. He said he didn’t want the argument down the road of someone arguing a payment was made and he would have to be in the middle. He then asked how long it took to typically sell a place. I responded we work with buyers that are near approval for home loans so typically a year or two.
I accept this deal is gone, but if I had taken seller to my atty they would have felt that it is one more party in on a “con.”
I am trying to learn from this one, because the sellers were ready until the chat with their atty.
Should I insist upon meeting with their personal atty in the future?