Investor · Silver Spring, MD · Member since 2020 · 127 posts · 58 votes
After 8 months and 7 days of waiting for bank approval on a short sale... I'm still waiting. COVID has CERTAINLY not helped but unfortunately, I feel like this is going to make it to the one year mark.
This got me thinking though... What's the longest that any of you have ever been under contract on a property?
LET'S HEAR THOSE SOB STORIES! (Especially if they closed successfully)
We do cash deals, so we normally close in 1 to 2 weeks. One deal took considerably longer due to title issues.
We bought a house at auction (not tax or foreclosure, just a regular auction) and assumed it would be smooth sailing, but no. The land was originally part of a large tract of land (the whole block) owned by a prominent family. In 1964 a portion was donated to the Methodist church, and a house was built for a parsonage. It had never changed hands since.
A few days after our purchase the lady who does our title work stopped in to see us, "There's a problem..."
The property description was wrong. Not only wrong, it made no sense. The original sellers were all deceased, so it couldn't just be corrected. A few years ago their estate sold the rest of the original tract, and the legal description for that sale reads, Beginning at the Southwest corner of [blah, blah, blah] except [parcel deeded to church].
A survey was done, and besides the completely nonsensical property description, in the original plat of that neighborhood, which was never officially changed, the city had planned a street right through the garage. So the title company requested that the city vacate their claim to that strip of land, which they were willing to do, but the man who needed to sign the papers was on vacation, so there was a delay.
Multiple corrected deeds needed to be signed, and several of the people who needed to sign were out of state - more delays. There were questions about the marital state of some of the people who needed to sign. More delays. One of the local signers has a rather mercurial temperament. First she is quite agreeable, then can't be bothered, then contacts the title agent and wants to know why it all hasn't been finished yet. It's difficult to schedule meetings with someone like that, so more delays.
After more than 3 months, it finally closed. Success.
Will be one year almost to the day when i (knock on wood and cross fingers) close on this big deal I have been working on..... its a short sale and a new build.... and covid hit.... so financing has been all over the place..... i did get a nice sized discount tho....
I had to wait 1 year 3 months on a short sale in 2015. To be honest I forgot about it and assumed I would never close. Eventually we heard from the bank accepting my offer. After so much time had passed, I had to review the offer to make sure it was still a good deal. It was one of my first BRRRR projects and I still own it today with a cash flow of $450 a month.
We were under contract for 7 months 1 time while a title issue was getting sorted out. It never did so the deal fell apart. We were doing other deals at the time so it wasn't a huge impact on our business.
My longest escrow was my most recent house hack purchase in Surf City, NC. 5+ months. We purchased a house with a detached guest suite that we are going to rent out on Airbnb and cover the mortgage for us. Prior to us owning it, the house was strictly a vacation rental. We got it under contract in Feb and were planning on closing initially in April. The house was already booked out through August on the vacation rental market. Since we purchased it with a primary residence loan, we discovered that we have to move in within 60 days of closing or face possible loan fraud. We did not want to cancel all the vacation rental leases because we wanted to make some money on the front end before we move in. For an additional deposit, the sellers agreed to move closing a few months to the right to allow us to go through with the deal. It was truly a win-win for everyone. Always learning and growing!
@Thomas Enright 6 months waiting for an REO to process... then another 2 to get the previous tenant out before we would close. Total 8 months. Then the owner came into some money and stopped the entire process. In less than 12 months, it went back up on the market....
@Kenneth Garrett Haha wow that's a long time. I definitely would've forgotten about it too. Idk how your agent was on that deal but mine keeps sending me emails about every week and it seems like we're always just a few days away from getting final approval so idk if that's even worth it or if I'd prefer to just forget about it till it's approved. And so during all that time, had it gone up in value or had the market changed at all since making the offer?
@Sean McDonnell That's awesome that they were able to work with you on that! I'm surprised that they didn't ask for a higher price or something more valuable than just a higher EMD. What ended up happening with all that rental income then? You got the income for a couple months after it closed and they got the income before it closed?
Also, I'm pretty familiar with that area. I was stationed at Lejeune for 3 years. I really love the beaches in NC so you were right to hold out for that property!
@Whitney Hutten Oh no! I'm surprised that the owner was able to stop the entire process after that long. Do you know what happened with the seller that it ended up back on the market? And did you put an offer in the second time too? Sounds like a headache for sure
@Thomas Enright We are getting that rental income from closing to when we move in! It has been great to boost up our cash reserve fund. That's awesome you were stationed down here, my wife and I love it here. Let me know if you are ever back down in this area.
On the short sales just forget about them and move on to other projects while you are waiting. The bank will respond when there ready. There is no logic to why they wait other than word from above to move a particular asset. You can always decline the offer when they come back. In my case, the value of the property was about the same so I moved ahead. If the values had fallen I would have tried to renegotiate. If they had refused I would have just moved on. You can’t get attached to properties, it’s all about the numbers.
Back & forth for over 10 months. He was the proverbial tired LL whose wife was nagging him to unload the 3 unit after spending a lot of money on it for mechanical. His neighbor told us it was available.
We had a contract drawn up & signed for his ask price CASH & had it back to his attorney with EM. Then we waited, 1st he was concerned about the Capital Gain as he held it 30 years. After his accountant resolved that he said it needed a new roof, something we knew but at his price it was not a problem for us. Sat waiting with back & forth between attorneys for 2 months & then discovered he had a complete new roof including all new sheeting done, including gutters & downspouts.
Now he wanted more money. OK how much & shocked us with a request for $4k more to cover some of the roof expense ??? So we signed a new contract for the price bumped by $4k upped the EM to entice him & waited for him to sign it back so we could close. We knew that once rehabbed it would be a clean $90-$100k net profit & had an investor ready to take it if we held the note.
It stalled again & then he wanted confirmation that his existing tenants paying <MKT RENTS COULD STAY. OK no problem as we were not going to rehab for a some time & we were probably going to just flip it to the investor we had lined up.
Back & forth between the attorneys for a few more months, then his attorney got pizzed & sent us back the EM he had been holding in escrow, with an apology. Figured it was dead so planned to move on.
Then a month later we get word it's going to close, can we have the cash that Friday. No problem but will believe it when he actually shows. Sure enough he shows, we close & his attorney walked away without saying good bye to the schmuck.
The tenants all bailed within a few months & it has been rehabbed & we're holding a very, very nice note.
Longest one we scored took 18months but we just watched & waited until it dropped then pounced, CASH, close in 30, no conditions. We were told to pound sand & a month later we got it for <1/2 his original ask price, but $4k more than our original offer.
@Mary M. Wow that sounds even crazier than my situation! Is the short sale approved yet or are you still waiting on that?
its been a loooong drawn out process, but the loan is luckily not with a bank or a govt agency so we have been able to get it done with the first bldg (Buying 2 of them- first one closed this mo) - lots of folks having to sign off but I think there is motivation on their part
This has/is an amazing learning opportunity for me and hopefully I got some nice assets at a good price.... of course I hope I have not jinxed anything!
It was 3 months for me when i bought my current primary residence. It
was a foreclosure and i have no idea what the bank was doing the entire
tire. You guys all got me beat it seems, maybe i didnt have it so bad!
A duplex I sold in the Windcrest area of San Antonio has been under contract with the buyer since February. The seller died 5 days before closing and we are having to go through a full probate. So far 5 months and counting! Longest time I've ever been under contract by a mile.
6 months and counting. Waiting to clear up a title issue. Finally the paperwork has come back today that will clear a lien, so hopefully it will close in the next couple of weeks.
9 months during 2007. Short sale on a dilapidated 1940's house in east austin, 78702 right by the commuter hub in a gentrifying area. On top of that, I did a fha 203k loan on it. That was a doozy! Made a nice chunk of money on it but it was a tough deal all the way to disposition.