We were hoping to close on the house last Thursday, but the lender was not able to get the loan docs completed. Obviously, with the current credit market, it is very difficult to get anyone to loan you money and once they agree to do so, they have a lot of paperwork. Put on top of that our 21 day escrow (ending Monday .. uh, today) and we did not have very good odds. We talked to the seller's agent (who happened to be the seller's sister) and she said that this was not a problem, as our lender had approved us and was going to fund the loan by Tuesday. On Friday morning, we received a letter from the seller's attorney that stated if we don't close by Monday, they were pulling out of escrow and keeping our $80,000 deposit. I don't know about you, but that is a whole lot of cheddar where I come from...
We scrambled and found another lender that would get the loan done on Friday, but wanted their appraiser to go to the house before funding. After the appraiser's calls went unreturned, we got another letter from the seller's attorney stating that the appraiser would not be allowed into the property. They stated that since contingencies had been lifted, they had no obligation to let anyone into the property.
So we went out and hired ourselves a bad ass attorney.
Over the weekend, we warned the sellers that we would file suit for breach of contract and failure to perform, as they wouldn't let the lender's appraiser into the property. We are (as our attorney stated) ready, willing and able to execute the contract, but they are prohibiting us from doing so. So, either they comply by 12 noon on Monday (uh, today) or we file our suit against them which will not only tie up the property so that they can't sell it to someone else, but will also potentially cost the seller a whole lot of scratch.
On our end, we had until 1:00 to fund the loan so that the sale would record on Monday. By 10:30, the escrow company told us that the sellers agent's email had been disconnected and that they had no way of getting a hold of her! This was getting ridiculous! At 12:00, we still had no answer. Chris and I were just driving around trying to burn time. 12:30 - nothing from the lender. At 1:00, we got a call that they filed an extension and had until 2:30 to fund the loan. (At this point, my stomach was riddled with ulcers.) Chris and I kept a positive attitude and threw a lot of positive energy towards the situation. (Even when the email came through from their attorney that the escrow company was not to allow the sale to be recorded if they did not meet the cut off time.)
At 2:30, the loan had still not been funded. We had missed our window to close and both of us felt miserable. Our attorney raced to the courthouse to file the suit which included restitution and punitive damages against both the seller and their agent. He then shot off an email to the seller's attorney stating that any failure to close was a direct result of the sellers bad faith and interest in seeing the deal fail. He also reminded their attorney that they would be looking at substantially more in damages.
Back at the ranch, we got an email from our lender ... approximately 56 minutes after we had needed it ... that they had approved us and would fund and record tomorrow. Day late and a dollar short, as they say. Both of us kind of moped around and tried to buoy each other with, "Sometimes bad things happen to good people!" And, "Everything happens for a reason!" We also called our landlord to see if we could extend our stay at our current rental. (I think I would have died if they had already rented the place!) We felt down, but we felt that the law would prevail ... we just had wished that it hadn't come to a big nasty lawsuit.
While we were waiting for Ashley to wake up from her afternoon nap so that we could drown our sorrows in a Cadillac Margarita and some mexican food, our attorney called. It seems he got a phone call from the seller's agent (the one who wouldn't return anyone's phone calls and turned off her email address so that no one could get in touch with her) who said that they were just trying to make sure we closed on time and didn't really mean anything by all this and it would be OK to close and record tomorrow. JUSTICE PREVAILS! (Or at least our bad ass attorney did!)
So tomorrow, we close on our dream house. After much drama, stress and heartache. We can't wait to have you over to see it. Hope you like Top Ramen Noodles! We're going to be living on them until we sue the sellers for something we haven't thought of yet! (Kidding, sort of...)
Check out girlfriend's shoes...love them!
