What's the LONGEST you've ever been under contract for???

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)

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Sylvia B.

Rental Property Investor · Douglas County, MO · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes

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.

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Matthew Olszak
Real Estate Broker · Chicago, IL · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes
6y
As a broker I had a seller who was under contract 354 days. It was a regular purchase but the process was absolutely insane. Their attorney turned them (my clients) on me and there was very little communication between us after the initial acceptance. The idiot attorney was impossible to communicate with, and only took docs via fax or mail. Then after many delays the city comes in and writes up a ton of violations, which the seller corrected and cleared w/o any adjustment to the purchase price despite it being an as-is sale. The sellers also got rid of the non-paying tenants prior to closing despite them being a big reason we priced the building like we did. Buyer was getting a killer deal having all that fixed/corrected so he hung in there. Some 11 months after we went under contract all of the sudden I get an email from the buyer talking about a closing date/time being scheduled, and miraculously the deal closed.
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Thomas Enright
OP
Investor · Silver Spring, MD · Member since 2020 · 127 posts · 58 votes
6y
@Eric Wilkinson Yeah it's a pretty common thing for people that are trying to do delayed financing but if you do that, the HUD-1 will show your total cost of the purchase to include the rehab and more than likely, that would allow the title insurance to cover the cost of the rehab. Definitely let me know if you ever give it a go!
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Thomas Enright
OP
Investor · Silver Spring, MD · Member since 2020 · 127 posts · 58 votes
6y
@Twana Rasoul yeah I think mine will end up making it to the 1-year mark as well. Was there anything that finally made the bank make a decision or was it just time?
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Thomas Enright
OP
Investor · Silver Spring, MD · Member since 2020 · 127 posts · 58 votes
6y
@Jay C. Oh well that seems like a good set up. Did you just request a closing date a long ways out in the offer or did you do it some other way? And did you have to time a rehab into your timeline or was it ready to go?
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Twana RasoulBusiness Member
Real Estate Agent · San Diego, CA · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
6y
@Thomas Enright Just time...but I didn't mind since it wasn't stopping me from doing anything else.
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Thomas Enright
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Investor · Silver Spring, MD · Member since 2020 · 127 posts · 58 votes
6y
@Jonathan Soto Oh jeez what's the story with that one? Was it an underground one or something?
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Thomas Enright
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Investor · Silver Spring, MD · Member since 2020 · 127 posts · 58 votes
6y
@Matthew Olszak Jeez. That's crazy. How'd the city get tipped off? And that really sucks about that attorney. Do you know why he would've wanted to turn your clients against you?
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Thomas Enright
OP
Investor · Silver Spring, MD · Member since 2020 · 127 posts · 58 votes
6y
@Twana Rasoul Yeah that's good and that's about where I'm at too. Still doing other stuff and just sort of letting this one ride.
1 Reply
Jonathan Soto
Lender · Newark, NJ · Member since 2016 · 695 posts · 252 votes
6y
@Thomas Enright yea it was underground and had leak. Sellernfinally removed it and received nfa letter but he was moving very slow
1 Reply
Ian WalshBusiness Member
Lender · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
6y
4-5 months
1 Reply
Mike Mocek
Property Manager / Licensed Realtor · Toledo/Columbus, OH · Member since 2019 · 244 posts · 262 votes
6y
My longest was prior to COVID, I had a contract on a Multi-Family Unit here in Toledo, OH and the first lender that my buyer was working with had ordered an appraisal, but when it came back was severely under (By $30k!!). Knowing the market and where the property was, and after my buyer almost getting ready to walk (We were already 3 months in at this point), I located him a lender and not ONLY did the property appraise for more than what it listed for, we closed in two weeks. So a total of 4.5 months under contract. By far my personal longest.
2 Reply
Brian Ploszay
Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2009 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
6y
Two years. There was a title issue on a piece of land I was under contract to buy. It eventually was corrected and I bought it. Land went up in value during that time. I didn't even bother to build - resold it with the plans and took a profit.
1 Reply
Michael K GallagherBusiness Member
Real Estate Agent · Columbus OH · Member since 2018 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
6y
My longest time to close was our current duplex, nothing even close to what you are talking about but probably about 75 days from contract to close on and FHA loan. The major issue was that the first lender we used had an underwriter that saw the time from previously closed (aka when the flipper bought it) to the time we were purchasing it, and ordered two inspections because apparently that is a rule on the FHA side when dealing with properties that have changed hands in under a certain amount of time. Well the second inspection found two ridiculously small issues, one being the water heater didn't have whatever that drain pipe is on it on the overflow valve...but basically a 15 dollar part at home depot if that. And thought there was something wrong with the back steps even though they were cast concrete. So managed to get all that settled and then the underwriter still wouldn't close the deal because the zoning in this area has changed and the city could not guarantee that we would be able to rebuild "exactly the same" in a case of a total loss....the city was very reasonable and said there is a process in place but that they couldn't guarantee that the process would still be in place in the future...totally logical from my standpoint.
So we finally had to change lenders on about day 60, and their underwriter took a look at all our information and said that the timeline that triggered the 2nd inspection was in fact outside the time to require that second inspection. Because there was a 3-4 day delay from when we submitted the contract to when the seller signed the contract thats the real date they needed and that fell just outside the window. So they got it closed in 10 days lol!
Totally crazy but totally worth it.
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Bill O'Donnell
Rental Property Investor · Newburgh, NY · Member since 2018 · 160 posts · 117 votes
6y
@Thomas Enright
9 months.
No sobbing, it was my best deal yet.
But the bank sure can drag its feet.
It was not during covid19.
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Thomas Enright
OP
Investor · Silver Spring, MD · Member since 2020 · 127 posts · 58 votes
6y
@Jonathan Soto Oh well congrats for getting that thing closed! What did you end up doing with that property?
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Thomas Enright
OP
Investor · Silver Spring, MD · Member since 2020 · 127 posts · 58 votes
6y
@Ian Walsh Yeah that's a long time, what happened with that one?
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Thomas Enright
OP
Investor · Silver Spring, MD · Member since 2020 · 127 posts · 58 votes
6y
@Mike Mocek Wow that's awesome that you were able to help him by getting that new lender lined up! What made it get to the 3 month mark in the first place?
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Thomas Enright
OP
Investor · Silver Spring, MD · Member since 2020 · 127 posts · 58 votes
6y
@Brian Ploszay Haha that's pretty straight forward for how long it took, some of these stories are crazy. What was the title issue? And if you're willing to share, how much of a profit did you end up making on that one?
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Thomas Enright
OP
Investor · Silver Spring, MD · Member since 2020 · 127 posts · 58 votes
6y
@Michael K Gallagher Haha that's crazy. Lenders get paid to make loans and sometimes it seems like they intentionally try to prevent loans from being made. Others seem to know exactly what their job is and they know the rules and they make things happen. Congrats on a closed deal! Have you had a chance to use that lender again?
1 Reply
Thomas Enright
OP
Investor · Silver Spring, MD · Member since 2020 · 127 posts · 58 votes
6y
@Bill O'Donnell yeah that's definitely a long time. What took so long? Was it a short sale or foreclosure or something?

@Bill O'Donnell
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Mya Toohey
Real Estate Agent · Tampa Florida · Member since 2013 · 630 posts · 303 votes
6y
Realtor, from Tampa Fl. My longest was a short sale owned by a man on the run from the police...wait, it gets better.... This was in St. Petersburg, in Pinellas County. He was running from child support payments and a wife's alimony. So, the house was left vacant and, you can only guess what came next. We waited 3 months for the seller and his wife to sign. They had to track him down in Mexico and not tell the wife where he was. Not sure how that works...LOL...But, anyway, the bank then took another 2 months to agree. At that point our contract had run out so we extended. Well, in the fun stormy season in Florida, a tree fell on the house and damaged the roof. We went back to see the house after 6 months under contract and the whole house was full of mold....UUUUGHGHGH....So, we went to cancel the contract and low and behold the seller has disappeared. So, 9 months later we are still under contract (expired and cancelled in writing but held up by the seller). Only bad thing is that are holding our $3500 escrow money until the seller signs cancellation...We are in mediation now.
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Mike Mocek
Property Manager / Licensed Realtor · Toledo/Columbus, OH · Member since 2019 · 244 posts · 262 votes
6y
@Thomas Enright The original lender took their time through the process, he was not familiar with investment properties. The title work was done before we even switched lenders for the appraisal, it was all pending on the appraisal. I learned so much on that deal so I was grateful to be apart of it :)
0 Reply
Brian Ploszay
Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2009 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
6y
@Thomas Enright I think it was because of an estate issue that had to be settled. I was going to pull out of the contract, but I just let it ride for the two years. I didn't have a lot of earnest money. When I was younger, I wanted to build houses, which I did. I sold it because the lot was worth went up in value, about the amount I expected to make on that house. Something like 50K. The next year, the great recession happened.
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Peter MckernanBusiness Member
Residential Real Estate Agent · Irvine, CA · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
6y
Started in March and still waiting to close.... I'll keep you posted haha! It has been a long time and still counting on this one, government backed loan with seller's finding a replacement property, and still cannot get an answer for when we will close!
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Thomas Enright
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Investor · Silver Spring, MD · Member since 2020 · 127 posts · 58 votes
6y
@Mya Toohey Hahahaha that is only a story that could've come out of Florida lol. Jeez I don't even know where to begin with that. Any idea of what the outcome will end up being?
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