good deal gone bad with friend? - Posted by Kathryn
Posted by Kathryn on June 09, 2004 at 21:52:28:
I have to post this or I might explode. My husband’s best friend had a home for sale “on the creek”. He paid only 160k for it last year & I knew this area was popular to invest in. I asked him if I could “buy” it from him to resell to investors. I asked him how much he wanted & what day next week he wanted to close. He seemed suprised but said yes. He wanted 200k when the smoked cleared, even though the house appraised at 239k. I told him that if I couldn’t sell it in 2 weeks, the deal was off. It took about a week to catch up to him to get a key, so I could see what I was selling and to then write up a contract. The key came but not the contract. Within days, I found a buyer for 229k(they would pay ALL closing costs,since I was giving them 10k in instant equity) but I was adament to him that I need a “contract” signed first, before I could sell it. At first he told me not to worry, he would not nark me out. Then the more I pressed, he seemed not available because he is so busy. The day I was to “sell” to the buyer, I went to him and said I must have a contract made immediately. He said ok. I had asked him twice in our dealings if his wife was on title, he said no. I made the contract out, gave it to him, and actually believed he signed it. (since he had pen over the contract} I asked for him to make a copy right in his office. I took the contract, and on my way to buyer to sign her up, I looked at the contract, and found that he really did not sign. Since I was running late for the buyer, I only called him and let him know I was not happy with him not signing. Anyway, I signed the buyer for 229k, went back to his office with my new contract, and asked him to sign. The buyer had the printout of the mortgage info, and his wife WAS on it. I told him I needed his wife to sign and I will pick up next day. I also had explained the process of what I was doing and the difference of 200k and what I sold it for, was my profit. I had asked early on if he had a problem with me making 15k and up and he said no. When he seen the profit I was making, after I sold it for 229k, I changed the price to pay him 205k instead of 200k, and showed him the difference. Again, no problem. Now the closing is next Tuesday, and I know, you can see this coming, but still I have NO contract. He is angry and says it is not fair, and we must renegotiate, which I agree since he is my husbands best friend, but as of yet, still no contract and no negotiation. I don’t care if I get a dollar, I do not want to get arrested nor do want to come between my husband and his best friend. His friend is a successful contractor and is experienced in investing himself. I on the other hand, do not have his money nor his expertise, yet I am not stupid (thanks to Creonline) and I know what I told him and I explained myself many times to be sure he understood what I was doing. Now he knows I have no contract with him and I now believe he had no intention of signing one in the first place. The buyer is a real estate agent and I cannot see my way clear through this. I want to tell the buyers and come clean, but husband and him seem to be talking about what to do. I can think of 69,000 reasons why he wants to dump me on this deal, but like I said, I don’t care about the money, I just don’t want to be arrested for selling a house without owning it. I have been beating myself up about allowing this to go this far, but when it is a good friend, you can’t just treat them like you do if it was a total stranger. He knew I would trust him since his connection with my family. Obviously, I would have never did this and trusted him if he were a stranger. Any advice will be welcome,legal, moral, and otherwise; even if is: I told you so!
