Dumb Mistake by REO agent and I - Please help

[Greg P.]

Hello, I'm currently in escrow to buy a property through a REO agent I contacted directly. He was more than willing to help, and we signed the paperwork quickly. Well, come to find out, his assistant accidentally checked the buyer assumes special assessments box and I totally missed it because he and I were such in a rush to get the paperwork filled out. He didn't even explain anything to me because there were literally 100 initials I had to sign so we zipped through it. Well, it's 2 days before closing and the sellers title company is asking me to pay $4k more because there was a pending assessment on the property. I know I shouldn't have signed, but I assumed everything was fine because I've bought numerous reo's with no problems? He even admitted it was a mistake, but he's not sure what to do. Any suggestions?

[J Scott]

Ugh...sorry about that Greg... :(

This is why I say ALWAYS HAVE YOUR OWN REPRESENTATION. While it may have been a mistake, it very well may NOT have been a mistake (I'm betting on NOT). The listing agent represents the seller (not you) and has a fiduciary responsibility to the seller. That means that the listing agent should do everything legally and ethically in their power to get you to agree to pay for as much as possible (so their client pays as little as possible).

No, the listing agent didn't have a responsibility to explain the contract to you, as long as they didn't lie to you about anything if you asked questions. Should they have checked any boxes with asking/telling you? Probably not. But you said that the whole thing was done in a hurry, so the agent has an excuse. And you said that you've done several REOs, so in theory, you should have known.

This is a sucky situation, and I'm sorry you have to deal with it. That said, $4K is not that huge in the scheme of things, and there are plenty of lessons that cost more than that -- at least you won't make this one again.

Next time -- get your own representation...at least until you're 100% confident you know the ins and outs of the contract.