What a Rollercoaster Ride (and it wasn't the fun kind!)

I've been struggling with how to approach this post.  This whole process has been crazy. Lots of ups and downs, twists and turns, just like a roller coaster.  It's been about 15 and a half months since we started this journey, and today brought it to an end for this particular home.  Let me begin where it all started falling apart.

In my last post I told you that things were potentially on hold. It had been discovered by the Title Company that the seller was owing on her HOA (home owners association) fees. Originally we thought it was around 5-6 thousand dollars, the amount was actually closer to 10 thousand dollars.  Yes you read it right folks, 10 thousand.  That's 3 years of not playing her HOA fees.  So without that amount being paid off, the house cannot be sold. I compare it to the HOA putting a lien against the house and it has to be paid before it can be sold. You would think that the seller would like to be done with this sale, pay it (along with the other money she owes to the bank) and just be done with it.

Well, that's what you'd think. Not the case. Because this all came to light on the weekend and no one could get reach the seller, her listing agent or the attorney, we had to wait. Monday came, we were supposed to be on the road, but instead we sat around waiting to see if we could leave. The day came and went, the attorney and the title company, without anyone asking, reduced their fees to bring the sellers amount owing down to $3800. You would think that she would be happy and say thanks, I'll gladly pay up to get this over with. Nope.

By mid afternoon on Monday no one could get a response from the seller or her agent.  My husband had had enough and searched the Internet for her, hoping to find a cell phone number, email or social network site. Well, he's a good detective my husband and found her.  In a nutshell, she said it's not her fault, it's the banks, and that she has no money and she can't pay, so we have to or someone else will, but it won't be her.  She also felt the need to tell us that" she's not a mean person", we didn't say she was. At this point, knowing she's a real estate broker we think that she's not very smart, but we wouldn't say that to her.

We called our Realtor to tell him this piece of information. He was amazed she actually answered. We also know that on Monday, the attorney reached out to the HOA to see if they were willing to forgive any of the amount owing but we had not heard back.  We relayed to our Realtor that at this point if we don't have a conclusion to this issue by the end of day today, we were going to walk away from this house.  There were emails going around this morning and it appears that the seller did not even inform her attorney that she owed this enormous amount of money. He found out when we did.

So the day is done and we heard nothing back. This deal is also done, it's over and I'll take my deposit back now thanks.  BUT our journey doesn't end here, we've already got our eye on another property, details to follow.

P.S. it's not a short sale;)