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How an Interspousal Deed Can Delay a Closing in Elk Grove Florin
Many married couples do not realize they can’t close escrow without an interspousal deed.
My sellers just closed yesterday on a home in the Elk Grove Florin area of Sacramento that was scheduled to close on July 5th. The buyer’s offer contained provisions for a hard-money loan with a 15-day closing period. One would figure this would be an easy transaction to close without any hiccups, regardless of the buyer feedback we received. I always ask buyer’s agents to share their buyers’ thoughts after showing a home, and I pass on that information to my sellers, just so they know what buyers are saying and thinking as they walk through the home.
That kind of feedback is often very interesting. For example, we had several agents tell us that home was overpriced and they did not like the condition, felt it needed too much work. Pretty much zero upgrades. It was built in the mid 1980s and looked like it. The owners at one time had installed laminate flooring but the flooring itself was curling up at the edges and pulling away from the quarter rounds.
The kitchen is open to the living room, a nice feature many buyers appreciate and it’s hard to find in these homes, but I imagine most buyers would want to tear out the cabinets and start over with a complete kitchen and bath remodel. Tiles in the entry showcased cracks. One of the tiles had been broken into pieces, and when I went over to meet the gardener to clean up the landscaping, I methodically replaced each piece of the puzzle that some buyer or agent had removed. It could use paint throughout and new carpeting in the bedrooms.
Originally the sellers had intended to do a lot of fix up work for the house. They had been thinking of a price around $225,000. After my inspection, and drawing on my 40-some years in the real estate business, I suggested a price of $235,000 and advised them not to fix up the house. This price was on the high end but given demand, I felt we could get close to it. Buyer after buyer trudged through during the first 9 days for sale and turned down the house. We received a bunch of offers, too, ranging from $225,000 to $230,000.
We countered the $230K offer but those buyers refused to budge. They felt they knew market value and were not willing to pay list price. Well, those guys were obviously not buyers for this home, and I suspect their agent was disappointed for the communication failure. Then, along came an offer of $238,000 from our hard-money buyer who purchased the home AS IS. I do not push my sellers to take offers and often advise them to wait for what they deserve to get.
Yet, we could not close escrow on time. We obtained 3 extensions and, at one point, made the buyer release her earnest money deposit. The hold up was the buyer did not realize that because she was married, in order to receive title insurance to close escrow, she would need to obtain an interspousal deed from her husband. He lived in China. We asked her husband to go to the American Embassy and get the deed notarized. Instead, they notarized the deed in a Chinese dialect, which was unacceptable. Needs to be in English.
If a buyer is married and obtaining title insurance to buy a home in Sacramento, either the spouse goes on title or the spouse signs an interspousal deed in front of a public notary, in English. I had faith we would receive the interspousal deed because I see this happen a lot. Buyer’s agents don’t always ask about a buyer’s marital status, and they should. The sellers were somewhat nervous. Yet, the deed eventually arrived and we closed on the sale of this home at one of the highest square foot prices in that neighborhood for a home without updates.
If you need to sell your home in Sacramento, better call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Making a Contingent Offer When Your Home is Not Yet on the Market
Few sellers take a contingent offer seriously if the buyer’s home is not for sale.
If you don’t eat yer meat, you can’t have any pudding. It’s not just Pink Floyd who says, among other disturbing insights, there is a certain order to the world if you want to get things done. If one can’t abide by customary procedures, then there could be ways around it, which is often my specialty as a Sacramento Realtor. To operate within the confines and restraints of a system with the goal of discovering a loophole designed to bestow an advantage for clients, while minimizing risk. And a contingent offer certainly falls within those parameters.
Part of that success means I need to know the residential purchase agreement inside and out and all of the accompanying documents. You won’t find me at a loss for words when a client needs advice. It might be complicated, but I’ll give it to them straight.
I wonder what other agents tell their clients? When I receive a contingent offer from a buyer’s agent in a pre-acknowledged multiple-offer situation without any preface, just: here it is, it makes me wonder. First I check to see if the agent showed the home. Nope, not that I can determine. That would mean the buyer probably came through a Sunday open house and then called his agent after being informed all offers would be considered immediately thereafter. Yet, why would a buyer submit a contingent offer when the buyer’s present home was not only not in escrow but not even on the market?
Having posed that question, let me add that I am sometimes lucky enough to get a contingent offer accepted for a home not on the market when we’re working with buyers, but we don’t just dump the offer on the listing agent without an explanation. We also produce an MLS number for the contingent property and explain our extensive marketing system. We give the other listing agent a solid plan to pass on to her seller. Then it’s no skin off the seller’s teeth to accept our offer because that listing can remain in active release clause.
Giving a listing agent a contingent offer subject to selling a home when said home is not even on the market is like Wimpy: I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. It’s like saying: if I could afford to buy your home, I most certainly would, Ollie, and flipping your tie around. Such a thing can make you feel like you’re Bojack Horseman, trying to explain to Princess Carolyn that her date is really 3 little boys stacked on top of each other under a trench coat.
