Posted by DaveWNC on January 30, 2002 at 23:53:09:
I think you have definitely gotten yourself into a pickle by selling a home you didn’t actually own, merely agreeing to buy at a future time contingent on something that was beyond your control, namely the untimely closing of your seller.
You must first grapple with the very real possibility that your seller may NEVER close on the home he is buying for whatever reason, i.e. credit verification, builder delays, etc. Closings can go south at any time due to a number of strange circumstances. Again, this is beyond your control and perhaps beyond your seller’s control. By playing both sides you may be digging yourself deeper into a hole on the HOPE that your seller closes in a timely fashion, if at all. You are going to be losing sleep for the next week unless you nip this in the bud and protect yourself from any litigation or further headaches.
Has the buyer paid you any money up to this point or has he merely put money down as a deposit with a purchase agreement? In a park of 650 units, are there any other units available that you could purchase right away and satiate your buyer’s motivation? You should not be spending money paying for a storage shed for your buyer because if the seller doesn’t perform on the sale you have nothing but an anxious dependant buyer and an emptier wallet. Have you ever known a bank or mortgage company to offer to pay for storage fees because they dragged their feet on a closing? I think it is timely to strongly clarify and fortify your position.
As you stated, I would not alienate the PM’s son for the reasons you gave. Your buyer may be grateful now but in a week or two when your seller doesn’t close, what will you do with your buyer? And I say “when” not to be pessimistic but to realign your thinking so that you can protect yourself.
Has your seller told you why he is not closing until next week? Also, it seems you BOUGHT with a contingency of the seller closing but you didn’t SELL with the same contingency?
What’s done is done I realize so let me proffer the following advice. Tell your buyer in the nicest possible way that if the seller does not close by next week (and pick a specific date) then all monies in deposit from the buyer shall be returned to him and the purchase agreement will be terminated. If the seller closes in a few weeks from now, then present the home to the buyer, hence the aforementioned nice treatment. You may need to find a new buyer but at least you have not offended the PM’s son, who at this point holds all of cards.
Cheers,
Dave