Another Deal Gone Sour

The Universe must be trying to tell us something but I’ll be darn if I can figure out what it is. This is the fourth time we put an offer on a house and this is the fourth time the deal falls through. I don’t believe what’s been happening and the turn of events of the past few days. It’s been a real estate nightmare to say the least. And to make a very long story short, the bottom line is we still don’t have a house.

Here’s the long version: At 6:00 p.m. Thursday night the seller and I came to an agreement on a price for the townhouse. I got back into Vernon at 11 p.m. to sign the papers. A copy was being delivered to the seller’s real estate agent first thing Friday morning. I got a call in the afternoon from my realtor saying the seller’s realtor couldn’t find the seller to get them to sign the final contract with the price changes. Friday night I was told the papers were signed and that along with the other strata documents would be faxed to my realtor and delivered to me but that now it would probably have to be Tuesday morning since it was the long weekend and the seller’s realtor was now out of the office or away.

Tuesday morning I got a call from my realtor saying the documents had finally been faxed to him and that all the papers were there except for the last page which is the one with all the completed signatures on it. As well, I was told the seller was requesting an extension on the closing date to the end of July (an added two weeks) because there had been some family crisis of some kind and they wouldn’t be here to sign the papers on the closing date.

I smelled rat all along

1) because the seller’s realtor has a reputation for pulling nasty stuff if it’s to his advantage and I had my own run in’s with him when I was trying to sell my own house

2) their request for an extension on completion date came along with a threat to sue if we didn’t comply (not the usual kind of thing to happen if someone is under emotional stress from a family tragedy)

3) When we were dealing on the price I was told that they had a higher offer but they took mine over the other one because I had an earlier closing date

4) I drove by the place on the weekend and there was a car there when there was no one living in the house (apparently for almost a year) when we made the offer and all of a sudden there appeared to be someone there all the time when it was suppose to be vacant

Throughout all this there was numerous phone calls between myself, my realtor and the real estate board on the legalities of what was going on. The big brass, boss of real estate was called in to speak to the sellers realtor to find out what was going on, if there indeed was a family emergency, why we did not have the final copy of the contract faxed to us and to try and figure out what was going on if anything and what why things were turning out to be so complicated.

Tuesday night my realtor came to see me again. This time saying the seller was still requesting an extension and that she had now moved back into the townhouse. So what was this family crisis and why was she all of a sudden back in the townhouse I wanted to know. Why was there a sheet missing in the document, the one with the signatures, why did they keep delaying things, etc.
The bosses of Remax were called in again to investigate and finally they coughed up the paper with the signatures but they still demanded an extension on closing with talk about being willing to be sued if we went ahead with the dates we had on the contract.

Today, I got a call from the owner herself. Very abrupt, impolite and telling me her crisis was that her boyfriend had kicked her out and she and her 7 year old daughter had nowhere else to go which is why she wanted an extension on closing. I told her that I might consider it but that there would have to be some price adjustment of some kind made as it was going to cost us a lot more to close later. She flat out refused saying she had two offers higher than mine and that there would not be any price adjustment at all. I told her I would speak to my realtor about my decisions and not to her.


My realtor called me a little while later and was appalled to know the seller had contacted me herself. He confirmed that he did have a signed contract now but that they were sticking with their request for a time extension and that the seller’s realtor was offering a half duplex that he had that was vacant that “WE” could move into until the end of July.

My response - WHAT? Why should I do that? Why do you even offer me this? Why isn’t the seller moving into this duplex, she is in default of contract. I was advised by my realtor and the boss of the Remax office to line up a lawyer.

My options at this point were to, go ahead with the contract as it was with a closing date of the 16th – and she would have refused to move out and was prepared to have me go through court proceedings to get her out which would not have got me in there any sooner.
Give her the extension she asked for and take the chance that that would have been the end of the story – but I very much doubt it – as what were the guarantees that she would have found another place by then – and where would it have gone from there and how long would it of dragged on with lawyers and what not to get her out.

In the meantime, I had a guy give me an estimate on redoing the roof which we knew needed to be done. The cost would have been 2500 without the carport roof. I had also already shopped around for the cost of windows and doors I would have had to replace in the unit. We were ready to do the work but not anymore.

Tonight, at the end of a stressful weekend, we’ve decided to withdraw our offer and to let it go. We can’t take the hassle anymore and I figure it’s not meant to be if we have to fight our way through this. It’s not worth it as I know the request for an extension on time would not be the end of the story. I know I’ve got a court case but I’m to tired for the battle.

I don’t know what the moral of this story is except that I think that after four offers on four different places and all of them falling through, that the Universe is trying to tell me something. If only I could figure out what it is. In the meantime – it is reaching the mid 40’s in our fifth wheel setup. Ice anyone?