Seller agrees to sell but ignores the contract

[Lukas Vanagaitis]

Owner says he owns the property free and clear. There are 2 other people on the title. Property is vacant (despite some homeless guys) and in a bad shape. We agreed on the price, numbers worked, I sent him standard 1 page agreement, and he hadn't called me for a week. Later we agreed to increase our offer (and reached MAO) in terms of getting signed contract within 72 hours. Another week passed by. He answers the phone acts like a busy person and apologizes, says he still wants to sell it to us and promises that he'll get it done tomorrow (same on every phone call). Is that some type of new scam? Would you still chase the deal?

[Rick H.]

Originally posted by @Lukas Vanagaitis:

Owner says he owns the property free and clear. There are 2 other people on the title.

Property is vacant (despite some homeless guys) and in a bad shape. We agreed on the price, numbers worked, I sent him standard 1 page agreement, and he hadn't called me for a week. Later we agreed to increase our offer (and reached MAO) in terms of getting signed contract within 72 hours. Another week passed by.

He answers the phone acts like a busy person and apologizes, says he still wants to sell it to us and promises that he'll get it done tomorrow (same on every phone call).

Is that some type of new scam? Would you still chase the deal?

 You're still in negotiation stage, only YOU don't know it.

Put all the terms you want in a list. Include terms that address how you want to benefit from the property problems, including title. Think it through. Be ready to give the list to escrow.

Then, call you seller and ask him if he's ready to go to escrow. What date does he want to close by?  Ask him how long it will take him to deal with the BIG problems. He'll ask, 'What big problems as are you talking about?'

You'll tell him that there are others on title and they must sign off now (before) or during escrow and split the proceeds accordingly. 

His tone will change now that you're talking about the character of the seller by implication. He wouldn't be trying to leave out the other owners, right? Of course not!

Your job today is to find the confidence to call him on his BS without insulting him.

He either is or isn't ready.