rrah - I am considering reporting this deal to the Realtor's board. The brother was was also extremely rude to my agent and my mortgage broker. I haven't had any direct dealings with him, though, so the rudeness is hearsay. Oh, and he isn't just an agent, he IS the broker. The second lender actually worked out fine (junk fees actually a tad lower than the original lender), and the brother did have to pay a point to get me back to my locked rate (!ha!). If we didn't have personal reasons why we had to be in the house by the end of July, I might have pushed harder to keep my lender and push closing back 90 days. That would have given us three fewer months with two mortgages! The red flag was the contract that had been changed from "Mr. and Mrs. seller", to "Mr. and Mrs. Seller and assigns" to "Brother Broker." I did sign for the changes, but the lender found it fishy nonetheless. Everything, it appears, has come together. We did the walk through this afternoon (should I have written into the contract they had to take the dogs with them?) and closing is set for 2pm Friday. Thanks, all, and keep your fingers crossed.

You aren't required to leave anything not specified in the contract. What I did for my buyers was to buy one of those alphabetized accordian files and slip all the owner's manuals for the appliances that remained (fridge, washer, dryer, boiler). If there were active warranties, I slipped them inside the folder as well. I also left a list of phone numbers for service people who had worked on the house-systems, such as electrician, plumber, heating system, floor refinishers, etc. I also left them receipts for big repairs that had been completed, such as new roof, replacement windows and new deck. At the final walk through, I also provided them a hand-drawn map of the plants in the back yard (aka, there are tulips and daffodils in this bed, these are pink azaleas, this bed contains blackberry vines, etc.). Not required whatsoever, but it was what I would have wanted someone to leave me.

In our area, so many contracts do not make the period of refusal after the inspection that we do not even put the earnest money into the escrow account after the contract has gone past the inspection and acceptance by both parties. If you want them to buy the house more than you are willing to walk away from these buyers, then you give in. If they want to buy the house more than you are willing to lower the price, then they give in. This is just a business transaction and you are coming to a new agreement about the price within the bounds of the contract law. You need to know what the contract says in your particular situation and in your local area or trust that your real estate agent will advise you correctly/appropriately. In general, the investor does not have to buy this house. Another house will come up for them. So they maybe willing to walk. You HAVE to sell this house. You are not in the driver's seat. They have the money, and you want their money. Unfortunately, if you call their 'bluff' you may hurt yourself more than the potential buyer precisely because they DO NOT have to buy this house and buy another house just as easily. It is just a commodity to them. Your real estate agent should have advised you this fact about the investor buyers. If your local area allows it, it does not matter what the reasons are, they have the right to terminate (within the deadline) the contract based on the inspection; as least that is the law in my state. I can simply say that there are thing about the house that I don't like 1,2,3 etc, and I have the right to terminate. The contract says that the condition of the sale is based on inspection. (there is always something one can use to get out if one really does not want to buy the house...) It seems harsh but in the buyers market, the buyers have that option. You need to know your market to know how much you can leverage the market conditions. If the market is so hot where there will be another buyer quickly, then you hold your position. If the market is soft and you are not sure if you will have another buyer quickly, then you renegotiate to get the best price that you can. If they are investors, they maybe more savvy than you about buying and selling houses and have a better real estate agent to negotiate for them. Don't take any of this personally. Evaluate each position methodically and take the one that meets the most of your needs. Take the emotion out of this and ask yourself what is an acceptable price to you to close the deal and negotiate toward that. In business transactions, unless the deal closes, no one gets paid; the seller, the real estate agents (yours and theirs), the loan officer etc. This is why all agents really work for the 'sell' and not the 'price'. Most of all, you don't get paid until the deal closes.

It IS a vicious cycle FeedingFrenzy. Every time the banks turn down one of my buyers, all different banks, all different reasons, I lower the price of my house to get it to happen and then I have to get the seller of the house I'm trying to buy to lower his price because I don't have as much money as I did. All this playing around the banks are doing, leading people on, pretending they will lend mortgage money, is costing a lot of money. Wasted money. Me, my buyers, and agents who have been trying to sell the houses I've been trying to buy, have spent money on advertising, lawyers, title work, inspections, even gas... cutting into our "profit", and in some cases, like the seller of the first house I was in contract on, putting people further into a hole. That lady was under financial difficulties and the bank rejecting my buyer two days before closing really hurt her. Which hurts the economy. And it's all a waste because they're rejecting people who are good buyers. Brickeyee, I'm not going to argue with you about the quality of the buyers. We've been through it. They're good. By the way, the well/septic inspector wanted me to pay when he did the inspection and not at closing. He said too many of them don't close and he doesn't get paid. The buyer I'm on now is missing the second closing date tomorrow because, for one thing, the bank wants to know how many hours per week he's working at his new job that THEY made him get. How many HOURS HE'S WORKING PER WEEK?! Do they want to know what time he takes his coffee break?!And so I'm probably going to lose the house I'm in contract on because this is the third time I can't close and so that guy will probably lower the price of that house when he puts it back on the market. And so on and so on and so on. But the bank CEOs are still giving themselves big bonuses.