The deal goes SOUTH....

In any real estate transactions, there are usually several offers and counter offers.  Mine was no different.  The first contract included the house and the two empty lots next door with an offer of $37k.  The homeowners countered by amending the contract to separate the two side lots from the house and then wanted $3k alone for the lots.  It might not sound like much, but it was over market value for the lots on their own.  I countered by canceling the contract on the two lots and rebid on the house alone at $37,500.

We went back and forth several times until I discovered that because they were technically in mortgage default and in the early pre-foreclosure stage, they did not have the authority to consummate any deals.  Rather, they had to get final approval from their lending institution, the main lien holder....and they weren't going for it.

We decided from that point forward to leave the homeowners out of the equation and start dealing directly with the bank.  That proved to be a challenge in and of itself.  They were hard to get a hold of and they kept jacking around on the price.  I was starting to get a bit annoyed at their apparent pettiness over small details.  Here I was offering CASH and they were dicking around and risking a sure sale over a measly $200.  As annoyed as I was I recognized even at the latest price of $40,500, it was still a good deal and I wanted the house so I was willing to pay the price.  

A couple of days later I received the formalized inspection report and sent it forth to be submitted for the record as a point of leverage.  I was going to see if the bank would reconsider their position based upon the now documented and in print problems with the house.  Unfortunately, I never got the chance.  Behind the scenes while I was negotiating in good faith, the bank had been actively pursuing foreclosure to it's foregone conclusion. Several days after I submitted the report, I got word from my agent via the sellers agent that the deal was "dead in the water". 

Well now, that just really sucked!  Really sucked.  Grrrr......