Broker Frustrations (Part 4)

I’m expecting this is probably the last update in The Second Chance House mortgage broker drama, but wanted to update my readers on what’s happened…

We sent the final extension amendment over last night (the one that said they must put the rest of the down-payment into escrow and pay $100 per day penalty until close). The only response we received was that the agent would be back in contact with us today.

Then, this morning, my wife got a call from the closing attorney saying that they spoke with the mortgage broker and that the deal was scheduled to close next Monday or Tuesday. But, as I mentioned, the buyers told us yesterday that they were told their credit wouldn’t be repaired until at least mid-April! It was clear that the mortgage broker was again trying to stall by convincing us everything was on track, when the buyers already admitted it wasn’t. This infuriated my wife, who called her broker to find out what our legal options were.

Her broker suggested that we speak with the banking commission and report the broker’s bad behavior. Additionally, they suggested that we had two courses of legal action: I could sue for Breach of Contract (to recover lost expenses and damages), and she could sue to recover her lost commission (as could the buyer’s agent if he wanted to). After speaking to an attorney, we decided that recovering Carol’s lost commission would be easier than winning anything from a Breach of Contract suit; so, while it may cost some money to take this to court, we could likely get about $4000 from the buyer’s, effectively keeping them from buying another houses and screwing over another seller.

We let the buyer’s agent know that if the buyers didn’t agree to our extension terms, we would no longer negotiate, we would not accept a new contract from these sellers in the future, we would walk with their $500 deposit, and we would do our best to recover my wife’s lost commission on the deal. Additionally, I will put in a call to the Department of Transportation to let them know that the money they provided the buyers specifically to close on this deal was not going to be used for that purpose; if they want to pursue getting that money back, that’s up to them. And lastly, we will figure out what our options are with respect to having the mortgage broker penalized or punished for his clearly unethical (and perhaps illegal) role in this whole fiasco.

I don’t expect to hear from the buyers or their agent prior to the contract expiring tonight, and The Second Chance House is now back on the market for the weekend…