Seller's Attorney Nearly Caused Me to Walk

[Jason Krick]

I've been dealing with a seller for almost two months now.  She is motivated to the point where she will sell it for the judgement amount, which is good, because I can not offer more than that.  The complicated part of this deal is an insurance claim that she will assign to me to fix plumbing, furnace, and hot water heater due to a pipe that burst.  Assigning those proceeds is the only way to make the deal work.  The property is up for sheriff sale.  I will state that my relationship with the seller has been fantastic

Today the seller asks me to call her lawyer. We exchange pleasantries, and she immediately starts unloading on me about how ridiculous my offer is, that I should pay fair market value, and then I interrupted her and asked what she thought FMV. She quoted the appraisal from 2012. "Perfect" I said. "You get the house in the same condition as when it was appraised, and I will pay that. Did the house have kitchen then? Bathroom? Half bath? Did the roof leak? Was the plaster coming off in chunks? Ok, so get it back to that condition, and I will pay it."

She responds with "Then we will keep the proceeds and you can buy it at the sheriff sale for the judgement amount."  

"I wouldn't touch that property at a sheriff sale knowing what work is needed, and any investor who pays that will lose his/her a--.  

The next 15 minutes is her basically saying nothing but "Well, you got to come up higher."  After about the 12th time I heard it, I will admit that she broke me.  I caved.  I upped my offer.

I finally relented and agreed to up my offer.  I said, "Ok.  I will come up from my original offer.  I am going to find out how much you will charge your client to make this phone call, and I will up my offer by EXACTLY that amount, because I can think many more productive ways for your client to spend her money."

I felt like walking away, but got over it.  My standing offer is:  my original offer+1 billable hour.  I'm waiting to hear back.

[Christopher Telles]

As an investor I will not negotiate a transaction, price and terms, with a principals attorney. I just refuse. If the seller/buyer can't negotiate on their own behalf and they need an intermediary I'll recommend they hire a real estate agent. That usually gets them back to the negotiating table.

I've had attorneys heckle me with messages that so and so instructed me to call them and my favorite recent comments was "you are prohibited from contacting my client to discuss terms of sale". Mrs Dickwad attorney had drafted an amendment to a previously agreed to Purchase and Sale Agreement. Mrs Dickwad didn't like the terms and felt they should be changed.

Its because of this and many similar incidents with principals attorney's that I will not negotiate or renegotiate a transactions price and or terms with an attorney. 

The seller/buyer can have their attorney negotiate contracts, no problem there, but they need to remain on point and not stray into changing price and or terms.