Edit: Updated title to more accurately reflect current situation on 7/20/20


I've been metaphorically kicked in the balls so many times over the past 3 months, I'm now metaphorically sterile.

Getting divorced and selling a jointly owned house is never fun. But I Just. Can't. Catch. A. Break.

After a hard slog of two months of staging, showing, cleaning, and trying not to strangle each other, we finally get a buyer locked down.

Then, after getting the rug yanked out from under me on several houses that I had tried to buy, I found a fantastic new place to buy, with everything I wanted, and get it under contract at a great price.

And now, two weeks from the simultaneous closing for the sale of our old house and the purchase of my new house, our house buyer's financing falls through. They just terminated their contract.

What the actual fuck? It's like the universe has a hard-on for dicking me over lately.


So now it's back to square one for showing and selling our current house, and I'm almost certainly going to lose the dream house that I have under contract.


I'm trying to tell myself "Everything happens for a reason", and "It'll all work out in the end", and "Something even better will come along". But it's damn hard to swallow.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RogueJSK,

Sorry to hear this.

I just got done reading the home inspection thread.

Buying and selling homes these days really sucks.

Here the potential buyer puts up a non refundable deposit. Deal falls through due to no fault of the seller (ie, buyer cancels), seller keeps the deposit.

Deposit on the house I'm in now was two months of seller's mortgage. Was told at the time, this was normal. Called a "good faith" deposit as I recall.

"Earnest money" is the term.

Not common around here. This contract didn't have any. According to our realtor, it's fairly easy for a buyer to wiggle out of a contract and keep the earnest money anyway, so it's kinda pointless.

Earnest money is common here. But, the financing falling through would not qualify for forfeiture of the earnest money. It would get returned to the buyers.

quote:

Originally posted by CoolRich59:
Earnest money is common here. But, the financing falling through would not qualify for forfeiture of the earnest money. It would get returned to the buyers.

I believe that’s true in almost every state. I know it is in Alabama, Tennessee, Texas and Mississippi. I should get out more and buy more houses!

Preapproved sales only,

They were preapproved. Realtors generally won't even consider sending offers unless you're preapproved (or paying out of pocket). But preapproval doesn't mean final approval.

Preapprovals are generally good for 90-120 days. A lot can change during the up to 120 days after initial preapproval, especially in this volatile economic period.

(Think back... What happened less than 120 days ago?)

Maybe they just got laid off. Maybe they had an issue with their credit that just recently popped up. Maybe one of them had a medical emergency and now owes the hospital a huge amount. Maybe they were cooking the books, and actually had a million dollars in hidden debt that was finally uncovered during underwriting. Who knows. We're not privy to that info, just that it fell through.

quote:

Not common around here. This contract didn't have any. According to our realtor, it's fairly easy for a buyer to wiggle out of a contract and keep the earnest money anyway, so it's kinda pointless.

this doesn't help. it's true failure to obtain a loan will usually not result in loss of deposit but a deposit can be put at risk for other failures to perform. there should always be a deposit and there should be a time limit for buyer to remove all contingencies including obtaining a real loan commitment from the lender. if they fail to do this seller should cancel the contract. a loan approval should never take 120 days. that would be a clear indication the buyer is having a problem and seller shouldn't play along.

It didn't take 120 days. It was 24 days from contract to termination.

But preapprovals are good for up to 120 days. So my point was that a lot can change from the time of initial preapproval to up to 120 days later when that preapproval expires. So preapproval doesn't guarantee that they will secure financing.

Shidt happens, its just part of the deal, it might not be the worst thing, in fact it might be good.

The same happened to my Daughter on her last home, original buyer backed out, it ended up that the next buyer paid the ask ++ using an escalation clause and getting in a bidding war with another buyer.

She ended up with more money that way, so who knows you may end up making more money.

I'm not so worried about the sale of our house, as I am about losing the dream house I have under contract to close in 2 weeks.

I know my current house will sell again. It's just a matter of when. So I'm just hoping that I can get the new buyer ASAP, and the seller of the dream house I'm trying buy is then willing to extend it another 30ish days to a new closing date.

quote:

So preapproval doesn't guarantee that they will secure financing.

certainly so. 24 days with preapproval is not an unreasonable time to apply for and secure financing, or in this case...fail to do so. Sorry it didn't work out. Good luck on finding another buyer quickly and holding your purchase together.

House was back on the market for less than 2 days, and we're already back under contract, with a closing date two weeks later than the original contract, for only $1k less than the original contract.

Now just have to cross my fingers and hope the builder/seller of the new house I'm buying is extend that closing by 14 more days. (Should hear from my realtor by tomorrow on that.)

And hope that the new buyers' financing doesn't fall through too.

And hope the new appraisal goes smoothly.

And hope the new inspector is less of a Chicken Little than the first one (see my other thread).

And...


Selling a house is seriously the worst.


Now... where can I get a metaphorical groin protector?

When travelling through hell, don't stop. It'll get better.

I was wondering (reading the inspector thread) if it wasn't some kind of inside deal, create some pretense to get the buyers out of it.

Wear a cup, you'll get through it.

If it makes you feel better, your description of how easy your divorce is going and that you have no kids, that is an amazingly good break.

Selling a house is child’s play compared to a disputed divorce with kids. You caught your big break, now use it wisely young Padawan. Lol

Seriously, count your blessings and good luck with the second buyers.

True. No kids did make the divorce much simpler.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

What the actual fuck? It's like the universe has a hard-on for dicking me over lately.

It's not you. I've had a host of miserable problems over the last 4 months. It all revolves around people waffling on contracts and promises.

Some have wanted to come back after screwing me over. They can, at triple the price.

V.

I feel your pain.

After a lot of time and road trips to get my parent's former home on the market and sold, the first deal fell through. Financing disappeared thanks to covid-19.

Would have sold $25k below list, they missed a great deal.

Then in a couple weeks another buyer bid $10k over list and that deal went fine and w/o much hoopla.

So, it can work out for the better, hope it does for you.

Well, no chance of making $35k more off it. The new second contract from yesterday is for $1k less than before. However, if everything else goes smoothly and that's all it costs, I'll gladly throw another grand at it to keep the deal for the house I'm buying on track.