It appears my post from last evening in response to some of the questions did not show up.
@Wayne BrooksYes we checked 4a, which automatically means 4a1 applies, but we checked 42b such that it was not subject to financing approval. We didn't need financing approval, but we did want to ensure that this did still have to make it through the standard protocols of lender financing and bank approvals. OUR financing was not going to be an issue. It is my understanding that the financing contingency is for if WE are approved, whereas 4a1 is whether the PROPERTY is approved by the lender via appraisal and underwriting, etc.
We put an amount in the line for 4a such that we were seeking a loan with only 20% down.
@Greg H. It was a standard TREC, not sure if the mediation was checked or no, but I believe there is a way around that anyway. Yes, the property has been marketed as ONE PARCEL, but had 3 legal descriptions and 3 different plots, 3 different tax bills and the current owner had 3 different mortgages/deeds, which I did not know until this issue arose. Our lender just emailed and provided this response:
"The reason that we were not able to proceed with your mortgage is because the way that the property is set up, it is ineligible for financing with Chase. It is parceled into 3 separate parcels with 3 different legal descriptions and 3 different tax ids, so it would have to be 3 separate transactions for us to do it. With that being said, if we try to do it as 3 separate transactions, we would run into the issue of them all using the same water meter, so that wouldn’t work either. Unfortunately, Chase wouldn’t be able to lend on the property for these reasons. "
I did send a demand letter, but only after I said we would be willing to provide $2000 to the seller as a concession since I genuinely wanted to make this go away and work. He basically scoffed and laughed at me. I still gave him till week end to decide, at which time I will file suit. I just wanted to get some other opinions on what more experienced people thought.
Additionally, I Wanted to see if anyone had experience dealing with an underwriting type contingency where this type situation has occurred and how it panned out.
@Joel Owens
It is a standard TREC in Texas. Title company is holding the money and has stated that they will not release funds until all parties sign or court declaration. They will hold the money for 3 years at which time it will escheat to the state. I would rather that happen than this guy get the money frankly. But I am happy to sue and make it more difficult on them as well since they are being difficult. I did try to make an agreeable arrangement and they were not amenable to that. Also note, this all went down in a 5 week period such that the property was not off the market long and the seller had only had 1 other offer in the nearly 7 months the property was on the market. It was also on the market 2-3 times over the past few years which makes me think that maybe this had been an issue before which they did not disclose. I have a lot of unanswered questions at this point. Something just doesn't sit right!