Seller can't afford to close - suggestions?

[William Dubinsky]

I've been under contract on an out of state SFH that was supposed to close mid-way through December. After several rounds of negotiations, repairs and inspections I wired my money to close only to find out the seller can't come up with the money he owes on back taxes, utility bills etc. He owes about $7k total before the banks will let him close. Does anyone have any suggestions??

[Account Closed]

I had a similar situation with a seller who had credit card debt which had resulted in a lien on the property, and with that debt + mortgage she would owe a good bit at closing, for our agreed price. The price was about as much as I thought made sense to offer given needed repairs. I called the debt collector for the credit card company, long story short they agreed to accept a payoff of something like 75% less than what was owed. You could try that for your seller - in my case the seller wasn't up for doing it, so I handled it and looped her in on the phone when needed. Whether or not they will accept a lower amount, or a partial payoff for partial release of lien will depend on different factors, you can look on here and elsewhere for info regarding that.