oh gawd, here we go....

Well everyone...

Thanks for all the help and advice. You are all wonderful.

Unfortunately, we're going to have to try to walk away from this particular house. The sellers are just doing too much creepy shit- i.e. doing minor repairs or having services done to the property and insisting that we pay for it. This is all stuff that is above and beyond our accepted offer, and the property was being sold AS-IS. None of this is new, they've done other stuff that was sending up red flags. About a week ago I made a stand and I was firm with them (they didn't want to allow an inspection until AFTER we made an offer). They settled down and quit trying to do creepy stuff for about a week. The very day that we offered and they accepted, they started back up again. We've decided that we don't want to deal with these people anymore (they were also going to finance us).

Hopefully their actions have now rendered our signed and accepted offer null and void and we can cut and run 100% free and clear. We haven't closed on the house yet, but there are a few instances where we might be completely SOL and have now "bought the farm", whether we like it or lump it. We're going to pull an attorney out of the yellow pages first part of next week and run all this by him/her to see where we stand under the circumstances and within the laws of our county/state.

So thanks again for all the advice... I just might need it to maintain an investment i'm stuck with.

Reply to
phaeton
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As you're now realizing, should have done that before... :(

You have no obligation beyond a written offer, but if they have accepted an offer, they can most likely enforce it if they choose to do so...but, definitely get legal opinion but since you've already made a move it may well be too late for anything except minimizing further damage.

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

Yeap... live and learn, endure and suffer..

The deal as written out by our offer is fine and dandy, it's just hard to say what extracurricular crap they'll attempt to pull in the meantime. Not real interested in having to maintain some form of heightened "defense mode" all the time against their onslaught. Just don't need that crap.

But, we'll see. Maybe I'm overreacting and naive, and this is fairly run of the mill and standard practice/expectation. Maybe they'll have their fun for now, and if i stand up to them they'll eventually quit trying crap in the first year. Nobody ever said buying a home is a painless, euphoric experience

0_o
Reply to
phaeton

What sort of "extracurricular crap" are you speaking about--in a "normal" closing, there's an offer, maybe a counter-offer and either an acceptance/rejection. There is nothing binding on either party outside of that written agreement assuming it is within the rules of the jurisdiction of note. You do realize, I hope, that even if there is no one other than the two parties involved there are still the rules for disclosure and all that folderol in many jurisdictions that are still in force. You really should run, not walk to get any contractual arrangement reviewed by a competent attorney. What have you done about assuring the seller has a clear and legal title to the property in order sell it in the first place, that it is not encumbered by other notes/liens, etc., or a target of a law suit/pending/current/former divorce or a myriad other possibilities?

From your original post I assumed you were simply looking at a listed property and wanting an independent evaluation...turns out you're jumping in too deep too fast it sounds like...

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

This might be a good place to start a thread on "unethical" or questionable things you've seen a seller do -- I'll start --

Our purchase was contingent on a termite inspection, among other things. The owner removed all of the 4x8 beams over the front patio area, putting them back up after the termite inspection was completed. (Fortunately, the termite inspector noted that the beams were missing during the inspection. Of course, they were riddled with termite damage, although had no active infestation.)

Same house -- the owner had a light over the back door. He screwed the fixture in place, drilled a hole through the concrete block wall and ran an extension cord from the inside of the house through the wall to the light. When he wanted to turn on the light he just plugged the cord into the wall . .. .

Reply to
World Traveler

Wow, sounds almost exactly like the house I bought 8 years ago.

The first thing I addressed was water infiltration and small structural issues. The rest was fixed slowly through the years, mostly by myself (this kind of house can become a nice little hobby).

All in all, I am quite happy with my "character" house. If you address the water/structural items first, the rest are very minor problems in my opinion. If, on the other hand, the plumbing and electrical had not been replaced in the early 90's on my house, I probably would have passed.

Good luck.

Reply to
jstp

That's how I feel too- couple o' things to do right away, but the rest is little, almost a hobby sort of thing. I think i would actually enjoy doing small repairs, learning things as I go. We'll see how long the 'enjoyment' lasts ;-)

Regarding my other post buried in this thread somewhere, we've got a few options for resolving some anxiety about the seller's practices in the works, so it may just work out after all....

We'll see.

Reply to
phaeton

We had problems closing also. The seller disagreed to have some brick section re-built ($2,000) and wanted to pay only for cosmetic re-pointing ($600). Lots of discussions and arguments. We eventually settled by reducing our offer by the $600 he was ready to cough up, and after the sale we hired our own contractor to re-build that section (plus other modifications we wanted to get done anyway). Much easier that way.

Good luck.

Reply to
jstp

The windows and replaning might be a little too much for me to handle as a first project. The missus was talking about just hiring professional for that, and i'm not offended in the least. It's almost relieving. The rest of it sounds exciting though.

We're waiting on some callbacks from some outside financing possibilities. It means in the end we pay more money, but I like this idea because

1) it would remove the sellers from the financing completely. I feel we can trust our local credit unions and/or banks, but I don't know if we can trust these people anymore.

2) banks or mortgage lending houses have their own attorneys on tap and can release the hounds if necessary.

As far as the fuel oil, it's all about principle, not the cost, but if we get an outside mortgage we'll probably just pay it to avoid any stupid complications. However, *without* outside financing, i would worry that paying it would just give them a green light to try to hassle us for other things.

Reply to
phaeton

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I'll reiterate--you need an attorney on your side and on your payroll..

All the lenders' lawyers are looking out for is interest, not yours.

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

True enough. We'll get our own lawyer too to go over all the stuff the mortgage company gives us.

Reply to
phaeton

Looks like some contingencies failed on our offer, which i assume makes it void. This is good news, as we can now involve a buyer's agent or real estate attorney (or payroll) to write up a new bulletproof offer.

Or walk away.

I can't decide which one I want to do :-(

Reply to
phaeton

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