Why focus on negative things? It seems that you have found solutions to these problems. Try to think positively and you will feel a lot better about everything.

"Those were two of the most stressful days of my life."-I hope it stays that way..:)

I wouldn't define ours as horror..but it was a big bummer when inspection found disturbed asbestos..so we got a special asbestos inspection to make sure where else it might be-and it was everywhere

We were about to back out . Actually we already signed the docs, we were on our way to fax them

But while on our way-we passed by the house..and I just felt: I don't really want to let go.

Long story short..now we have a new house. In the shell of the old house. lol

It was the most idiotic purchase I've ever made.

But there's something very calming about this damn house. It feels like my first teddy-bear..:)

An experienced mortgage broker friend who is a compassionate person, told us his most stressful experience.

The loan doc was signed by a pair of his long term friends/sellers on Friday. Next day, the Sat. the owner husband had a heart attack and passed away; the widow changed her mind, she wanted to keep the house. But the buyers refused to back out the purchase. He said the widow forever hated him.

At the closing table we learned that our seller had used the house for bail on a Federal Drug offense. He, his attorney and our attorney had to leave the closing table to take the check down to the courthouse to clear the bail requirements (or whatever you call it) so the house would be clear for us. No, the bail thing never showed up in the title search. All went well just took longer then we expected.

The seller of the house we're buying in another state had forgotten about getting A MOVING VAN. So instead of closing sooner than we'd been told which would have been very good for us with the paint/floor/carpet being done after we close, we're back to the originally promised closing and that's only because we made a big to-do about getting her out and closing by that day instead of 2-3 days later like she went to her realtor and told them she wanted.

As seller. 2 days before closing, and a day before they came and got the last pod for a cross-country move, I was stopped at a left turn signal (red, of course) and happened to glance in my rear view mirror - omg a car coming at me full highway speed. I lifted my foot half off the break and then he hit me. There was a cop at the intersection waiting for him. They had had an erratic driver call from someone else.

I really had no time to dwell on it. For some strange reason my car could be driven home. It died forever at the hotel we moved to. And luckily no permanent damage was done to me. But I had to get that pod packed (by myself) clean the house and get to closing. In 2 days.

Crazy.

Oh gosh. Our new house was being sold by a daughter (college student) and her mom. Mom decides to go off to China 5 days before closing (without signing paperwork or getting a POA). Mom had to make appointment and fly to US Consulate in Hong Kong to get closing forms notarized. Closing was delayed by three days, and to add further insult to injury we then had to rent the new house for 3 days to keep on our schedule for closing the house we were moving out of.

The buyer for where we're living now has been an absolute dream - got their appraisal and inspection done and we just finished having the fireplace inspected by the gas company (my realtor videoed that and sent to the buyer) which was the only thing on the post-inspection fix list the buyer gave us. The seller of the house we're moving to....Could be a bit more on top of things, I mean she knew when closing was and that she had to move her things out - Why wait to get a truck reserved!?

ETA: we're simultaneously buying and selling

Selling a house; our buyers never showed up for closing. We were at the title office, waiting, and they never showed. Three hours later, their agent finally called and said they'd changed their minds. We had already packed/moved out. Took another year to sell the damn place in a dying town.

Buying a house: then-husband got fired from his job a week before we were scheduled to close.

I know someone else who was selling a house and the buyers did not show up to closing. They still own the house more than ten years later. , but they took it off the market --more than a year after that incident.

My SO is an agent and someone now in their office worked at an agency where the buyer left the closing to put money in their meter, was hit by a car (taxi?) and was hospitalized and no one at the closing knew what happened.

This isn't horrible but I know someone who did the walk through the morning of closing, everything was fine , and the ex-wife of the seller, (who still had a key) went in during the closing and took all the door hardware and lightbulbs out of the house.

This is a very sad, it happened to an agent in my office. My friend was the buyer agent. The day before the closing she was doing the walkthrough with the buyers who were retiring from another state to their new "forever" home. The sellers had already moved out. The husband excused himself, went into the bedroom, and shot himself. She said it was terrifying. The wife didn't know anyone in the area so my friend took her to her home and helped her deal with all the logistics of the burial, getting the house cleaned, delaying the moving truck, closing, etc. The wife bought the house and did move in. It seems the husband had been battling depression since retiring.

newgardenelf, that's really horrifying and very sad story..Your friend's helping to deal with this..yes, I'm sure most people would do the same but not everybody is tested like that..

"Our closing date is set for August 18th, and a few days ago my husbands car went to crap. We both work so sharing a car wasn't an option, he has a 50 mile commute so biking or walking or having a friend drive him to work wasn't an option either. We couldn't pull money from savings due to the pending mortgage, same goes for pulling out a loan"

Are you telling us money is so tight you can't afford to rent a car for a couple days?

Almost positive that over a month isn't "a couple days". Not sure where you live but renting a car for over a month here would cost more than our mortgage.

I'm sorry if my comment seemed snarky.

I grew up in a small family owned business that repaired cars so when I hear a car breaks down - I tend to think it can be fixed within a couple days, maybe a week at the longest. I worked there for 5 years and saw this happen every day so that's why I asked about renting a car for a couple of days while the other one gets fixed.

My comment wasn't meant to be rude, rather ask the obvious.

I'm rereading and seeing that all the OPs $$ seems to be tied up. Good luck.

Perhaps the failure was catastrophic. Perhaps they had been putting off buying a new car until they closed (I have...). Perhaps the cost to repair was more than the car was worth.

Regardless, no matter how much money you have, it's always better not to tempt fate with the black magic that seems to take place in "underwriting"... I had to get a letter years ago for a 2 week lapse in employment... and getting "real" account statements these days from investments and the like has proven a challenge, too. Let alone a phone number for HR to "verify" anything.

Openly questioning a poster's financial position and decision making is snarky at best, vulgar at worst.

I didn't know asking about renting a car would cause so much grief. In a way I was trying to offer advice, in that maybe this could be avoided if a car rental could work. My original comment could have been written nicer. Let me rephrase...

"Our closing date is set for August 18th, and a few days ago my husbands car went to crap. We both work so sharing a car wasn't an option, he has a 50 mile commute so biking or walking or having a friend drive him to work wasn't an option either. We couldn't pull money from savings due to the pending mortgage, same goes for pulling out a loan"

I don't know what your money situation is nor is it my business, but could you rent a car while the other one gets fixed? Repairs usually only take a couple of days. If the car is worth fixing then the $$ borrowed from MIL could handle the repairs and you could rent the cheapest car available in the meantime. Or there is uber, lyft, friends, family, etc. Or, since your commute sounds closer, can you carpool, hitch a ride, or walk to work and let the hubby take your car?

I could go on and on...

Relax people. It's a forum.

Yes, his car needed an entire new engine, would have been more than what the car was worth to fix. And engine work wasn't the only thing that needed to be done, so fixing the old car was pretty much a no go.

ETA: I could have been more descriptive in my original post. His vehicle would have been over 2k to get fixed, most likely closer to around 3k and we just weren't comfortable with asking MIL for that much money and we didn't want to jeopardize our mortgage application while it was in underwriting by pulling money for any reason. Not that we would have wanted to fix his old car anyway. We live very close to my work but I have a gas guzzling SUV. He borrowed it for 2 days and cost $15 per day in gas to get to and from his work which was just ridiculous. I also wasn't a huge fan of not having my car and being trapped in the house with a toddler. His temporary new to us (but very old) car has great reviews and gets good gas mileage so for now it's an okay solution until after closing when we have access to our savings and/or getting a loan for a car.

Ashlee, I completely understand not wanting to spend the funds to fix the old vehicle or get another vehicle during your mortgage loan application. That is the prudent thing to do. Most loan officers will tell you - don't change your financial condition by getting additional credit or additional debt until after you close. Your solution of getting a cheap vehicle for cash is the right thing to do. Once you close on your house and set your new household budget, then you can plan for another vehicle. Nothing wrong with driving that cash car around until it dies :)

Selling a house - I knew the buyer was ditzy. I also knew that buying my house would get her very deserving little girl into an excellent school system that would do wonders for her learning disability. 2 weeks before closing, the ditzy buyer decides to change jobs. Her loan was in underwriting. When they called to verify her employment, she had none because she resigned and had not started her job. They denied her loan and I lived among moving boxes until the next buyer came along. And all of the hair I lost didn't grow back...............

I know an agent who was at a closing where the seller looked at the buyer and said "You know, I really.... just hate you and think you are a bad person. I am not selling you my house," and got up and left. I made a later, initial offer on a house that the seller got up from the closing when the buyer started talking about gutting the house, and the seller said "Oh, no you're not..." and left. He actually kept that house and rented it out and it was sold by his estate. (Unfortunately, it did need to be gutted. I walked through it after it had been renovated, years later).

I thought about not accepting an offer on a house because I really, really disliked the buyer's agent (prior to this transaction), and I figured if she was his agent he must be a slimeball too (he wasn't) . But instead I did not go to the closing and sent a representative so I did not have to sit at the same table as the agent.

(I never met him until well after the sale, and I don't think his buying the property was a sound decision on his part, and I think she should have tried to direct him elsewhere even though it resulted in the sale of my condo).

We'd made an offer on our first home with the understanding that it came with a warranty deed. About a week before closing we discovered that it was to be conveyed as a contract to buy and sell real estate as that was the arrangement that the seller had purchased the home. The agent said we shouldn't be worried, that a lot of real estate was sold that way. We spoke with an attorney who told us that the original seller would do that but wanted additional money "for a sail boat". We walked away from the sale.

jrb451, I don't understand. Why would you simply not comp the seller a sailboat? :) That is priceless and some other words I won't put into print....

We did file a complaint with the state real estate board against the agent that presented the property as having a warranty deed.

Glad you did that jrb451. A misrepresentation of the type of deed the buyer is getting is a serious violation. Those type of agents need to get out of the business. The seller on that one sounds really sleezy too. As an agent, its that type of listing to walk away from rather than attempt to sell.

Buyer disappeared five days before closing, never to be heard from again. I got laid off a week later. We did finally sell six months after that.

Not sure what sanctions, if any, the real estate board handed out to the agent and broker but I do know that they were pretty PO'd at us. What bothered me the most was how dismissive they were of our concern about not getting a warranty deed when we brought it up. It was a week before closing and we had become emotionally invested in the home. I think they were thinking that that would over ride our concern and we would accept the contract as is.

I was helping my 90 year old aunt with the sale of her home. She had already moved into an assisted living facility at the time of the sale and we were able to sell without a realtor. About a week before closing, the buyer, whom I knew, asked if she could get into the house before closing to paint. We agreed. Big mistake. The day before closing my aunt wanted to visit the house one last time. We set a time to meet (she was still driving). I arrived early and found her walking out of the house in tears. The buyer had not just painted, but had torn out a wall and begun renovations. I was livid so called her to voice my disappointment. I'm sure I had some well chosen words that time has faded. At closing she brought a realtor friend of hers, I'm sure for reinforcement. It turns out that I had know him since I was a kid. We ended up closing without incident, but I will never forget the look on my poor aunts face. Breaks my heart. I haven't spoken to the buyer since.

nhbaskets I'd be so very upset too. people can be very insensitive..when my MIL was selling her country home buyers would go and loudly say what they're going to rip out, and what they're going to gut etc..and her late husband actually built it all by himself, from scratch..I think they didn't have to discuss it in her presense. Like, think for a moment before you say, and especially before you do. But no, obviously too hard for some.

nhbaskets - that is sad. I ca't imagine your anger and hurt / and sense of disappointing your aunt. :-( I think that allowing any changes prior to closing is a bad idea. We had a similar incident as you with my inlays home. Why is it that they always ask to come in and "paint" - and you find a LOT more going on?

The issue presented by nhbaskets could have been worse. That's why letting anyone in before closing is not advised unless there is a lease in place even if it is for 10 days. There could have been a lien placed on the property if the work was done by a contractor or other nasty surprises. The seller takes on great liability when the buyer moves in prior to closing.

To keep it simple it is best to not have anyone occupy early. The excuse I see most often is "put in boxes". That is a 'no' too. If they want early occupancy, the safest thing to do all the way around is move the closing up to an earlier date and time.

If a seller is going to be sensitive to possible buyers discussing color changes or other modifications, they should get their butt out of the property when a realtor is showing it. The potential buyers need to feel free to openly discuss what they see - including flaws and potential improvements.

What if the potential buyers look at your grandsons photo on the wall, an comment, "What an ugly kid!"

A wannabe seller should go out of their way to allow the vetting process to go forward.

Just sayin'.

well in case of my MIL-it wasn't in the US, and it's customarily there for sellers to be present at showings

just sayin'

I also believe being a buyer doesn't excuse you of proper manners, whether seller is present or not

same thing as I wouldn't write a graffiti on someone's wall whether I can be seen or not

We were ten days from closing and found out that two members of the 20-home HOA were suing the orther 18 homeowners for road and foundation issues. Our sellers, who were flippers, and their real estate agent knew about all of it but didn't disclose it. Our lawyer said if it went to trial, it could be a settlement of $40-100K PER HOUSE. Good times. Needless to say we backed out. It was one of the few times I've been thankful we live in a small enough town that EVERYONE knows what's going on.

SaltiDawg, we weren't in our home when our buyers walked through. However, their realtor contacted us on their behalf four (five?) times to measure for significant changes, each time happily telling us what they wanted to change. We built that home and raised all of our kids there. I'm not naive to the fact that any new owner would change a few things (in a 10 year old home...but whatever) but they were jerks about it. Plus, they encroached on our time to pack and say our good byes. My dad kept telling me to be kind to them, so I was! After the closing, we contacted their realtor to ask if they had any of our mail, it took nearly two weeks to get an answer. Apparently kindness is a one way street.

I understand about rude buyers and such, but honestly when the house I grew up in was sold (we moved in when I was 7) ---that was it. I would not have cared if a wrecking ball showed up the next day. I don't think I would want to actually witness the demolition but if I drove up the street and it was gone, or it had some horrible remodeling done to it, it wouldn't bother me at all. It's not mine anymore. And any memories I have there are implanted in my head, not implanted in the house.

Everyone has different ways of thinking about things and people connect to their past in various ways, but I think it's sort of ironic that GW in general is a forum where people donot move into houses and leave things alone. They move in and do major remodels, they gut entire houses, they tear houses down and start over. They just get all sensitive when someone does it to their house--but they think nothing of doing it to someone else's. It's sort of a narcissistic viewpoint in a way.

I don't think it's that people don't want new buyers to change their house. It's just that there's a diplomatic way of handling it. Having the buyers tell you constantly what they want to change is a bit bold and rude, IMO. I'd never do it, even if I planned to gut everything.

I never even met the buyers of my parents' house, or the buyer of my last place until after he had moved in, and the buyer of my first place sold it exactly as he bought it to his buyers. So I don't know, I don't have the experience. I dunno, basically in transactions like this I tend to expect people to be not very nice until proven otherwise. The buyers of my two places were nice, but the one had a horrible agent, and the sellers of each place I bought were not particularly nice even though I went in full price on every transaction and asked for nothing after the inspections on any of the transactions. The sellers own agent on the last transaction called them a "nightmare" and they got everything they wanted, so who knows why. Oh, they had to fix a faucet, and there was no light switch in one of the bathrooms and they had to fix that. Yep, the lights stayed on full time in the bathroom they remodeled for the sale.

Honestly if I could buy and sell property without ever meeting the sellers and buyers in person, that's how I would prefer it. I sent a representative to my last closing, and I met the new owner only weeks after he had moved in.

In CA it is common to never meet the other party to the transaction. I like it that way. Just sold a house a few weeks ago, their agent called Sunday asking if we still had a key (they were locked out) yes, but we would only give it to him, not directly to the buyer, we don't want to meet the buyer. She has asked about three times (through our agent) how to work the timer on the fountain. It is a simple Amazon plug in timer, nothing complicated. I know the buyer would pump me for more simple information if I met her. Yes, they are planning to change the lock but haven't done it yet.

yep..when we sold here we never met the buyers

(we did meet the sellers both time we bought. both actually were interested in our plans, and asked for permission to come and look at the place afterwards. the first lady did come, and complimented my decor decisions(these were superficial..flooring, furnishings etc)..the second, moved to another state by the time we had something to show..))she asked whether we're going to remodel and we said yes and told her some of the preliminary plans and she was all shiny eyed and said it'd be awesome..she was very sentimental about the house-her childhood home..she just wanted reassurance we cared about the house I guess.,.not whether it'd stay the same..I understood her..

In all three of the occassions I can safely say all were very nice people to deal with..the ones we saw and the ones we didn't..the ones who sold and the ones who bought

and it didn't depend on future plans etc..say we knew our buyers are planning changes, and we actually adviced them where to get the flooring(since our agent asked on their behalf), and even left the sample..:)

it boils down to how things are communicated..

some people are plainly pleasure to deal with, even when there are issues and delays and strong emotions and whatever.

I just wanted to add..maybe unneccessarily so..)) of course buying and selling of houses is huge financial decision, with consequences and all, of course it can be very emotional and nerve wrecking, of course..yet it's still not some major life-changing experience...it's not like a war or famine or the loss of family or country, it's not like one's being imprisoned, it's not like one becomes devastatingly ill..in short, doesn't have to bring out the worst in us..and if it does a little bit, for any reason- we're still in control over it.

I left the extra flooring (it was nearly a full box of LVP, our flooring guy ordered extra in case the stairs turned out to be more challenging for his crew :P) and all three sizes in extra blinds (front window, upper window above slider, slider) since they weren't going to do me any good but being verticals in my experience it's always good to have extras. I met the buyer as there was nowhere for me to go with the dog, I worked predominately from home (renting office space was too pricey and the home office let me save for other things), and they came to sign papers after I accepted their offer during the middle of the day.

I guess I could have thrown the extras away, but that seemed silly to me.

oh of course we left the extra flooring..but wouldn't be enough for what they planned. and we knew for 100% it was discontinued-since we were searching for it again for our new house..took us many trips to many stores until we were able to find the(almost) exact match..so as we already did the leg work and had the sample..I hope they were able to match it closely. the sunlight changes the color, very slightly so, but there's still a tiny tiny difference between old and new

(that's how I learned companies change their flooring every 3-5 years..just a bit, but enough for you to start alllover again, if you want to get the same flooring..)

After we got a contract for our condo, the buyer wanted to come in with her decorator to do some measuring. I had a rule that either myself or my agent needed to be in the condo whenever the house was shown and since my agent couldn't be there, I was the one sitting there.

When the buyer walked in, I said to them, "Feel free to discuss any changes you want to make. It will not bother me. I loved this condo for 6 years, decorated it how I wanted to, and now it's your chance to create an environment you'll love." She was so grateful that I didn't take it personally and then went on to discuss her color changes etc with her decorator.

When she and her decorator got to the kitchen they started talking about switching the fireclay farmhouse sink to a stainless farmhouse sink. I asked what she was planning on doing with the sink and she said she was going to donate it, so I asked if she'd consider giving it to me.

She said she'd be happy to give it to me. Two months later after we closed on the condo, she called me to say, "Cpartist, I'm sorry I have bad news for you." I'm thinking uh oh, what happened. She then said, "I decided to keep the farmhouse sink." I told her it's a great sink and I was glad she kept it since it went with the quartz she put in.

We are now renting another condo in the same building. We've since become friends and were even guests when she had a cocktail party a few months ago.

We will be building right next door to our home so hoping we like the buyers. I seriously would not sell to someone if they overly rude or difficult. We live in a very small subdivision with three other home owners and we all get along very well, mind our own business and keep to ourselves. We just had the driveway paved, had 4 dead trees taken down that lined the driveway and had work done to the front entrance. Everyone easily agreed to the work and paid and not one had a problem or a complaint about it.

I had a Client that was selling his company and then buying a large tract of lakefront property to build an estate home on. The documents for the purchase of my Clients company were at the Buyers headquarters in NYC awaiting signatures...the date was September 11, 2001 and the office was in one of the twin towers.

My Clients company did sell about 60 days later and he did follow through on the purchase of the land but did not build an estate home on it.

Wow BJ, chilling.