In this market we always hear how sellers are difficult. How they are greedy and won’t make any repairs or do anything to help the buyer because they don’t need to. They will just go get another buyer!
However, there are story upon story where the buyer was the one to wreck the deal. It can be that they didn’t really have…or could not get…the financing needed to purchase the home. Or maybe they were too nit-picky on inconsequential repairs that make the seller refuse so the buyer walks away.
In one story I heard from an agent friend the buyer wanted to purchase a house with a tenant in resident. Under Texas Property Code the tenant’s lease will prevail in the sale of a property. This means the lease terms are honored and the buyer becomes a landlord until the lease term ends.
In this particular instance the buyer would have to take occupancy of the property after 90 days and the lease wasn’t up for about 10 months. The buyer and seller agreed to stay under contract until there was just 90 days left on the lease they would then close and the new owners could move in after the tenant’s lease was complete.
Everything was going smoothly until just a few weeks before closing. The buyer took out a $10,000 business line of credit. This one action caused them to no longer qualify for their loan and they were unable to purchase the home. The home they had waited 10 MONTHS to purchase!
When you are in a real estate transaction EVERYTHING matters. Every dime you spend, if you quit your job, change jobs, get promoted in your job. Everything.
When they could no longer qualify they could no longer purchase. They lost their Earnest Money, Option Money, Inspection Fee, and Appraisal Fee. Then…they had to go look for another house they could qualify for. Also, the seller had to go back on the market to find another buyer while he no longer had a tenant paying his costs.
When you are in a real estate transaction ask your Realtor if you should “do” whatever it is that you want to do. Find out the repercussions; because there likely will be some. How harmful will depend on the action.
