All Forum Posts by: Erin Church

@Mike H.

Don’t close without a CO. I couldn’t quite read your screenshot on mobile, but for Marietta, once all inspections are passed, the builder (or their authorized agent) has to go down, pay any fees/balance and get the CO. I’ve heard the horror stories of Atlanta permitting, so stay cautious so there’s no potential of you having to deal with it :) (I’m sure you know that GCs/subs are usually much less helpful when they’re already paid in full).

Congrats on being close to your new home! :)

@Nicholas L.

I agree with @Matthew Nicklin. I don’t see an upside for the seller to get $0 upfront and then only get 3.5% return on his money when you’ve mentioned that he’s getting 8% otherwise.

It also sounds like you’re only looking at the immediate - what happens if your renters don’t pay and there’s an extension of the eviction moratorium? Would the seller get their property back (foreclose on you) after legal costs, likely additional property damage and it’s occupied?

It sounds like your investor should sell and you’ll have access to his capital when you need it in theory. I would say this property/scenario doesn’t fit as an investment and there’s no need to try to make it :)

@Brent Fabian

We didn't. It looks like Greg can help you though :) 

@Dale Pfeifer

I called and asked Simplisafe if they had exterior cameras. They do not, but they have a $20 plastic casing for their cameras so they can go outside. You have to call and ask for it. I also asked if there was a discount. I was told no, but then I asked again... they can give 10% off of a phone order.

I wanted to follow up on this and share a valuable piece of information I learned. Signing a unilateral extension is agreeing to buy the property with all known information about the property. So, in this scenario, I would have lost my earnest money.  

The bad news is that we didn't end up getting the property. The good news is that the second offer they had sent for us to sign didn't have an expiration date. So, we signed it, sent a unilateral extension (as we only had about a day left on the contract to close), my awesome team pulled it all together, I wired the money, went to closing and the seller didn't show. 

We could have sued for specific performance, but I didn't want to tie up more time and energy on the deal. 

The second and third take away is that everything in real estate should have expiration dates and having a killer team is priceless! :) 

@Kalimah Jenkins

The all contingency periods did pass. They sent an amendment for property description on the 16th, but it was missing pages and we asked for a complete one. On the 17th our contingencies expired, on the 20th, they sent the second property description amendment with all the pages and that's when we realized the 0.29 acres (three days after). 

I agree with you about the $2,000 being a very tiny amount to an attorney. It is a not as tiny an amount to me though. 

I appreciate you taking the time to ask me questions and try to help :) I may not end up with a property from all of this, but I'll have one heck of an education. :)

@Kalimah Jenkins

The amendment is only to change the closing date. We are in agreement on price - the agents made it work for me and didn't impact the money going to the seller. So, the money part is worked out. 

This is a mortgage situation. We did use a standard MLS contract.

They gave the verbal this morning that they would not sign an addendum to the original contract, would not sign a new contract with a financing contingency and would not "let go" of the earnest money without a fight. It's being held by a closing attorney currently.  So, it isn't dead officially because neither side has terminated the contract, they just won't sell it. 

(We need the financing contingency with a new contract because a new contract means it has to start at square 1 with underwriting. Shouldn't need to use it, but just to have a CYA policy for myself.)

@Kalimah Jenkins

We did not close. I am the buyer. The seller wouldn't budge on price after we found out it was 0.71 acres smaller, I wouldn't buy at the current price, so the agents kicked in commission towards closing costs and purchase price.  So that the seller got her original price and I got a reduction in price. If I'm being honest, I don't know why the seller feels entitled to the EM. We would still buy if they would just sign an amendment, but they have said they will not.

Hey Everyone,

I posted a while back about a possible earnest money dispute. Well, as it turns out, it looks like I'm going to need an attorney. Does anyone have a recommendation of an attorney that is willing to help with a $2000 earnest money dispute? The contract is for a property in Cherokee County, I'm in Fulton County, so ideally someone north of Atlanta, but I'm open to anyone willing to help with this. I'm finding that the attorneys do not want to mess with this since it's "small beans". 

The short version is the MLS, tax records, appraisal and seller said the property was 1acre. After the DD period, the seller's agent sent an amendment with an update to the property description showing it was 0.29 acres.

The seller signed the warranty deed when she purchased the property (with the current legal description) and signed the amendment of property description last month (so, the two times she's signed the legal description, with the latter going to the point to initial beside the 0.29 acres on the plat).  

The original closing date was missed because of going back and forth on price because what we thought we were buying isn't what we were buying. The agents made the deal work for me again (by pitching in some of their commission), but it was after the closing date. 

Any suggestions would be appreciated! :)

@James Wise - Thank you :) If this gets saved, it will be because of my RE agent :) 

@Russell Brazil - Thank you also! I talked with the attorney that's holding the earnest money (well, one of the folks that works there) and he said that step 1 is trying to come to an agreement.  If that doesn't work, (2) it falls into the power of the attorney to decide... and they typically send it to court to be determined by a judge. So, I think it's slightly different since it sounds like the attorney has a little more say so, but almost the same process (at least for the steps I may go through).  :)