How do I motivate my realtor to close quickly?

[Katherine Du Plessis]

Thanks for you feedback BP!

I am brand new to realty and just had an offer accepted on my first cash purchase ($25,000 I know its not much) of a single family house. This house is a reverse mortgage / HUD / Foreclosure (it is still not clear exactly what it is, but I am purchasing it as an investor directly from the bank).

There seems to be something slowing this transaction down. I am not sure if it is the realtor (who is a dual agent) or the seller, but it is taking much longer than I expected. 

The original close date was set for May 29, but as the contract stated that the close would happen 30 days from when the seller signed, the new date has been set to June 11th. You can see the timeline below and my question afterwards.

Contract / Paperwork Timeline 

- April 29th - Submitted original documentation

- May 4th - Received request from seller for revisions (submitted the corrections on the same day)

- May 11th - Received the seller signed addendum (submitted paperwork for the inspection for Friday, May 15th)

I never got a response from the realtor to say that he has received documentation or emails and he has not confirmed the inspection date or even let me know that he has received my request. 

- Considering the money involved, is it normal not to hear from your realtor and for things to take so long?

- Is there anything I can do get the realtor to quickly respond and say he has received documents? 

*Is there any way that I can get this transaction closed as soon as possible (once the inspection is complete)? 

- Do you have any other advice or insight?

Thanks for any help or advice.

[Mark Gallagher]

@Katherine Du Plessis

Welcome to BP! 

This is the exact reason it's good to have someone working for you as a buyer's agent. For lack of a better description, the buyer's (your) agent would be waiting to be paid and therefore hurrying everything up to make it to closing (at least a good one would be). 

Without more info, my best guess would be that the agent doesn't want to get all the utilities turned on for your inspection, and is blowing you off. It's not typical to inspect $25,000 purchases in my market. So when someone wants to inspect the property, even though it's within their right to do so, it's A LOT of hassle for the agent to get the home up and running. Most agents expect that investors will know that for $25K you're not getting a perfect home and therefore an inspection is futile. 

My best guess would be to tell the agent you'd like to help them get the utilities on. Ask them what you can do or who you can call to make it happen. 

I'm not defending the agent, rather making an assumption of how this agent is handling it (poorly).