Email Elizabethflakey buyers
When a Sacramento Buyer Cancels Escrow it Opens the Door
Another door can open when a Sacramento buyer cancels escrow.
When a Sacramento buyer cancels escrow, it can be hard on everybody all around. I’ve recently had to resell three homes due to buyers who ultimately did not perform. In one case, the buyer had wanted to buy a different home but the seller of that home had chosen a better offer, so the buyer lost out. When that seller lost her buyer, her agent notified our buyer, and enticed that buyer to cancel and buy the home the buyer wanted in the first place.
It worked out for that particular buyer but my poor sellers, living in a mobile home in the middle of South Dakota and praying for a closing, are distressed. That listing is back on the market. Buyers don’t care much about the ramifications of the hurricane they leave behind.
In another escrow, the buyer decided the sales price was too high halfway through. We had several appraisals, one of which exceeded the sales price, but the buyer refused to close. The buyer’s agent was so certain it was closing, we thought it was OK to remove the home staging. We had to re-stage. Fortunately, we found another buyer who liked the home enough to step up to the table. But it delayed closing for another 30 days.
The escrow that just closed yesterday was a shining example of what happens when a Sacramento buyer cancels escrow. The buyer’s agent had stopped all communication. Both my TC and I emailed, called and sent text messages almost daily, and the agent simply ignored all communication attempts. Finally, after dragging it out, sending a Demand to Close escrow, the agent finally called to say her buyer can’t get the loan.
My seller was furious. After he calmed down, he offered to pay me extra to get him a higher sales price. That in itself would be called a net listing. It means if a seller wants, say, $300,000 and I bring him an offer of $350,000, I make $50,000. Which is ridiculous. I get paid enough. It’s called a commission. I rejected the seller’s offer and simply found him another buyer.
We had an FHA appraisal at our sales price. The buyer’s agent knew this, and his buyer was FHA, still he wrote the offer for more than the sales price. It won’t appraise for more. An FHA appraisal is assigned a case number and the next buyer will get the same appraisal. Instead, I suggested the seller counter with the buyer paying the difference in hard cold cash, in addition to making the sale strictly AS IS.
The buyer sent a request for repair and we countered with Notice to Buyer to Perform to remove inspection contingencies. The buyer realized the error of his ways and backed off. We closed yesterday.
When I called the seller to confirm our recording, he was ecstatic. All of a sudden, having gone through two escrows was no big deal. Hey, I sold the house twice and was paid only once. But that comes with the territory. When a Sacramento buyer cancels escrow, it means we don’t abandon our sellers because of it and they should not abandon their listing agent either. It’s a two-way street.
In the end, my buyer received another $3,000 for his property for waiting another 30 days to close. Although he was unhappy at the time with the buyer who could not close, the next buyer paid even more. As long as he is happy, I am happy.
When Flakey Buyers Cause Back on Market Listings in Sacramento
Back on market are the last words any home seller wants to hear.
Dealing with flakey buyers that result in back on market listings is always a pain. It’s extremely painful for the sellers who were blindsided. One day the sellers are counting on closing by the end of the week, and the next day, wham, the buyer is canceling. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, the listing agent’s duty is to resell the home. No listing agents I know want to sell a home twice and get paid once, but we do it when it comes with the territory. Because we have no control over the buyers. That’s the buyer’s agent’s job, and it’s tough for them to be a buddy and an agent. So they choose buddy.
This is one of the reasons I am happy that I made the decision years ago to work solely with sellers. I care deeply about my sellers and do everything in my power to ensure a smooth transaction, but I am not in the position of having to choose between being a buddy or an agent. Some of my sellers end up close friends, but my primary function is to reach their goal, which is a closed escrow. A buyer’s agent goal is not always to close escrow. If they cause a back on market listing, they’ll just go out with their buyers to find something else.
Except in the case of a property where we were all the way down to the wire and that’s when underwriting noticed this first-time home buyer’s payroll stub. Apparently, nobody else looked at it. Not the mortgage loan officer, not the processor. The name of the company on the payroll stub was a temporary agency and not the name of the company where the buyer worked. The company where she worked refused to write a letter addressing her permanency. That resulted in no approval and no home for this buyer. This buyer might never buy a home now.
Then, to add insult to injury, the seller had elected to paint the eaves on a day the temperatures were over 100. The underwriter called for the painting as a loan condition, even though everybody else thought it looked fine. Paint the eaves and we will close, we were promised. We decided it was better for him to tackle the job to make sure it was done correctly and to clear loan conditions, although it was really the buyer’s responsibility due to the AS IS clause. After all of that hard work and sweat, closing was a no-go. The buyer’s agent had developed her own personal problems and pretty much vanished the day we went into escrow, which was also part of the on-going issues.
Back on market listings can be a source of joy for a buyer who has lost out on offer after offer. First go-around we had 8 offers. We have a solid appraisal from FHA with no conditions. All we need is an FHA buyer who can close escrow. After gravitating toward conventional offers for so long, now we have an FHA approved property and no FHA buyer. Well, we’ll just shake it off and go forward. It’s not the first and it won’t be the last.
How Many Sacramento Purchase Offers Does it Take Before an Offer Sticks?
Buyers who write purchase offers on homes they intend to buy generally close.
Even though I have been in the real estate business for 40 years, it still amazes me how buyers can be so sure one minute and so completely nuts the next. I’m wondering if there isn’t some sort of sign that buyer’s agents are overlooking, or if the agents are so completely focused on getting the paperwork signed that they forget to have a chat with the buyer. You know, something along the lines of: When you sign this contract, you have committed to buy a home, just in case they thought they were signing up for membership in Sam’s Club instead.
We have all become distracted by technology and the whirling world around us. Hey, anybody could have a temporary lapse, I suppose.
I just don’t understand how a buyer can be jumping up and down with such enthusiasm over buying a home, and not quite 2 minutes later falling into cold feet syndrome with severe regrets. Just a few days ago, an agent called to say his buyer was dedicated to purchasing a home in Sacramento. The guy was absolutely in love with this home, and his entire family was behind him. They were so obsessed with buying this home that they pulled out a wad of cash, $3,000 in all, and gave it to the buyer’s agent, begging him to obtain a cashier’s check with it on their behalf and draw a purchase offer.
Two other buyers wanted the same home in Sacramento. This was really good for my seller. She was excited and relieved to hear the news. We received two offers and waited for the purchase offer from the buyer with the $3,000 cashier’s check, too. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Then the agent called to say the buyer had a change of heart and was no longer interested in buying the home.
Doesn’t matter because we have 2 other purchase offers. It was tough initially choosing between them. They were very close to each other in terms of price, down payment and terms. The seller did an eeny, meeny, miny, moe and picked one. Signed the purchase offer. We sent it to the agent and 30 minutes later escrow shot over title information to the buyer’s agent. That’s when the agent emailed to say that after he explained the process, oh, so sorry, his buyer has flipped his gourd and will no longer be buying the home.
All this in one day. Sure hope the third time’s a charm.
