Seller is dragging his feet- what is really going on?

[Kelly N.]

Hello BP,

We are under contract on a 4 unit property and the seller seems to be dragging his feet on everything.  He had 3 properties in this market for sale, one has already sold and the other is still on the market.  He has more rental property in a couple of other cities but claimed he wanted to get out of this market.

While we were negotiating he was slow to get back with a counter offer, taking 3-4 days instead of 2.  We asked for leases and the City Rental Certificate and it took two weeks to get the leases and be told that they weren't current with the rental inspection which we already knew- the City is behind on inspections and this house wouldn't have passed anyways.   We were told the seller's brother passed away so we understood the delay.  We had our inspection and the seller was there to give the keys to my agent, my husband expressed his sympathy and the seller didn't seem to know what he was talking about at first...  We asked for payment records, that took about a week, and we found out they had taken one tenant to court over nonpayment and so we asked what had become of that and it has been over 2 weeks without an answer.  They agreed to paying part of our closings costs over a week ago and still have not signed the document...

This property is part of a 1031 exchange, and my realtor said it doesn't affect us but they have to make sure the title company is aware, but I am wondering if he is delaying on purpose to make sure the timing works on his other deal... 

Any insight into why he can't seem to cooperate or what we can do to move this along would be appreciated.

Kelly