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.
I’m currently under contract for a primary residence, signed the dotted line December 2020 and here we are mid July 2021.
Found the deal off market and one of the agreements was that we would wait to close until their new construction was finished. COVID had some serious delays, so hopefully closing mid August.
As bummed as we are for it getting delayed it has appreciated tremendously in Sneads Ferry and we negotiated $1,000 off closing costs for every month that it’s been delayed!
Just closed a land deal earlier this month. Originally went under contract in June 2020. Was extended and then assigned before finally closing. I originally listed it in 2015. So I was reluctant to walk away. So grateful it is done and freed up cash to put to work elsewhere.