Hi All,

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.

We recently signed a contract with buyers on our house, on Feb 19th. They started the lending process on Feb 22nd. We were told multiple times by their mortgage agent that we would be closing in less than 30 days. So, we went ahead and locked in a rate on the house we're wanting to buy.

30 days came and went, and no closing. Our Realtor has told us multiple times that the mortgage company says it's in "underwriting". After a week of lying about that, the realtor finally got the truth out of the mortgage agent. The buyer's mortgage got flagged for an audit by the IRS (it's an FHA loan), because the buyer's maiden name got used somewhere. Supposedly they've got the paperwork back a couple of days ago, and are pushing things through. When pressed for more info the past couple of days, they just say they're "working on it".

We've had multiple people stop in our driveway and write down the realtor's number on the sign, and make calls. Our realtor has not shown the house to anyone else. I've asked her multiple times if we've had interest in our house since the contract was signed, and she never replies.

We just signed a contract extension for another week and a half. Our mortgage company is going to charge us more if we don't close soon, because of the rate lock.

Does this situation sound legitimate? Is there anything we can or should be doing?

Thanks for any help!

-Mike

FHA is typically taking sometimes 45 days to close. 30 days should never have been given as a guarantee if it was. Never make decisions on unrealistic guidelines. You always want to leave in enough wiggle room as 7 times out of ten there is a bump in the road leading up to closing.

Especially if the buyer is using a national lender and the company is processing a large number of purchase loans along with refinances.

Mortgage brokers are always full of crap. You never believe a time line a mortgage broker gives. A mortgage broker can give an ESTIMATE but they do not control what an underwrite will do on a loan. You can give the underwriter everything they initially ask for and then they can come back multiple times with additional requests delaying the closing. It's nothing that can be controlled this is why it is always best to leave extra room to close. If it closes sooner than all is great but if it takes longer you didn't make plans on a time frame that realistically wasn't going to happen and you don't have to get a closing extension signed.

Buyers can put in offers on your property but that won't help you close any faster because your existing buyers are further along in the closing process.

Stick it out for the next week and then if they can't close go for other options.

no legal advice

If you want to terminate the contract have a real estate attorney find an out for you but it won't help your rate lock.

I can defent the Realtor on one point. "Its being worked on". Sometimes that is the only answer there is. I have an offer in and the lender assures me "its being worked on". Do I belive him? All things considered, I have to.

Why the Realtor would not return your calls in your hours of need? I can't defend that. Wanna responce, quit signing the contract extension. I would likely keep the deal alive though and add verbage that the house goes back on the open market and the current buyer has x days to close or you gotta move on.

The situation sounds legite though. The customer service aspect, not so much, its poorly executed. You were over promised and nobody wants to say it.

no legal advice

REODayton stated exactly what I was going to post as well. Because they have already past the close of escrow date, put the property back on the market and look for some potential back up offers with "subject to cancellation of current escrow" in the MLS remarks. Keep the same buyer if they get financed, but if you get a better offer in the meantime, jump on it. Don't forget to ask the seller on the other house to be patient and that you appreciate them waiting for you.

We're now into day 48 of the contract. Still no closing date... I keep getting different information from the realtor and mortgage broker. Basically here's the gist of what happened. The buyers gave two years worth of tax returns (07 and 08). Supposedly the 07 transcript was bad for some reason. The IRS isn't sending them the right info. They just now filed their 09 return, and are waiting on a transcript. It could take 2-3 weeks to get that. We're going to have to pay $580 extra now due to our rate lock. And if we don't close in 15 days, we have to re-lock at a possibly higher rate (5.25% versus we currently locked at 4.875%).

Unfortunately, this is the risk of buying a home contingent upon the sale of your home.

Just to update everyone on the situation. We are now almost 70 days into our contract. I have come to find out that the buyer's lender told our Realtor "things aren't going well, you need to find another buyer" twice. Our Realtor told her, "I can't do that to the buyer's, they're too nice".

I also asked our Realtor multiple times about continuing to show, and she said "you don't want to do that, you'll have to start over with a new buyer", or "no one will want to see it since it's under contract".

I'm guessing there are some serious unethical things with this situation.

The main broker at the firm called a congressman, who has liason's that work with the IRS. They claim they can get the form this week, and we will be able to close the deal. I've got my fingers crossed!

Im not sure anything unethical has occured. It sounds like the agent wants to get this deal closed and is fairly confident that it will happen, a few kinks just needs to be worked out.

What you need to do is Tell the agent what you want done, "I want my house to continue being shown". Your agent is correct in that it may not show as much being under contract, but if she put remarks in the comments that the deal is falling apart, it could work.

Hope it all works out though!

Chantman,

I have to ask you if the buyer was your listing agents customer.

If you have passed all closing dates and extended closing dates it may be time to consider cancelling the contract by not allowing an additional extension.

Time to have a "meeting" with your agent IMHO (In My Humble Opinion).

There is an old saying that "You get a lot done when you get all the liars around the same table". I am not suggesting that anyone has lied to you but I am sure you get the point. Sometimes it is difficult to seperate the pepper from the fly dung.

Ask Direct questions and demand direct answers.

Mortgage people only get paid if a mortgage gets closed. If they tell you to find a new buyer believe them!

If you cancel the current contract you will have no issues about others looking at it. Tell (don't ask) your agent to put into the MLS comments that the other deal fell through and you are open to other offers. This is all just IMHO but we have seen this before and we have never seen it turn out well.

Sometimes you have to accept that reality is other than what you want it to be and you need to cut your losses and move on.

Best of luck to you