Seller has property under contract at two different Title companies!

[Belinda Lopez]

I've been working with a seller on an RV Park for over two months. He informed me recently that he has the property under contract at a different Title company 'as a backup.' It looks like they are still in the early stages of the process with that 2nd buyer as they just ordered a survey and requested loan payoff info from the seller. They plan to buy with partial financing and are working with a loan broker who is promising a kickback to the seller.

My buyer is already way past that stage and in their due diligence period discovered a thousand and one issues with the septic, water well, un-permitted buildings, etc. and has formulated plans to remedy all that to satisfy their lender. We're just waiting on lending docs to get to the Title company to close this one finally. Positive the 2nd buyer has not yet discovered all those problems but I suspect they will shortly.

Both contracts original closing dates have now expired though ours has been extended to allow time for the lender to get their docs over. Seller is obviously going to sell to whoever gets to the closing table first. I know we can't interfere with the other buyer and point them toward the issues we've already discovered. We also found out the seller's broker has not been made aware of this 2nd contract now with the 2nd Title company.

We've already put up additional earnest money and the cash portion of my buyer's funds for purchase are now at the Title company as a good faith effort. So the question is, "Is there anything else we can do to try to insure we're there first?" And is it illegal to have two contracts/buyers going at the same time as this seller is doing?

[Dean Letfus]

You must immediately cloud the title. Providing your contract is valid this is the first thing I do every time. They then can't sell elsewhere as they have to go to court to get your lien removed and you can fight that. I find clouding the tile stops sellers from playing games. It has helped us close scores of contracts we would have otherwise lost. Hopefully the other buyer hasn't already done this. If they have then you are basically out of luck.