All Forum Posts by: Talmadge Billingslea

The wholesaler was not ready, he came back negotiating lower.  He did not have an end-buyer ready for a month.  The current price is not more that $5000 over what the contract had. It's higher because of the improvements made over the past year.  I think you missed the point that we were willing to sell it to the buyer.  He never asked.

Ok. Apparently the most important part was the "Cloud". 

The cloud started in 2017 with a city citation.  That cloud affected us then in 2022 under this contract is still in effect and we are fighting now was an administrative fine (rolling) from the City.  For those that are not familiar with that term, it is when the city gets a judgement that covers all property owned by an individual until whatever citation caused the fine is repaired.  In 2021 we sold the property that had the citation (property "A"). the buyer (also a wholesaler) made arrangements with the city to pay $1,500 for a fine of $209,000. Yes, it was only a sale price of the house was $43,000. The city is like that. We gave them the cost of the fine at closing. It was on the closing documents "code enforcement". 

However, the title company gave them the money and the cloud is still over our properties. This was the reason the deal in 2022 did not go through.  The property could not be insured by the title company.  I think you did not read the initial post.

No. There was a cloud on the property that is why we couldn't close.   Not a matter of us honoring the agreement. He could have just as easily said, he still wanted the property, he did not. On board with it? Don't believe like us, he had a choice. 

Update:
I spoke with the wholesaler and told him that I considered his $10,000 demand to be extortion. I explained that it was over a year ago and he had no interest in the property at that time. He seemed to be hyperventilating, which scared me. I asked him to calm down and call me back when he was feeling calmer. Instead, he texted me the following:

Mrs. Billingslea, I appreciate you taking the time to reach out to me. However, let's stick to the facts. A legally binding document was signed by both parties, one party did not honor the document, I sought counsel, (which cost me money) to rectify that issue to which you and your husband gave no reply, I took steps to protect myself and business through the city (which cost me money), and the only reason we're speaking a year later is because clouded title has forced you to so I can remove it. Those are the facts. I have no desire to beat around the bush. This is business and so I wish to be direct. You inconvenienced me, my business, and my partners for over a year. There is a cost associated with that. If you have a counter-offer in mind, I'm all ears and willing to work with you to be done with this quickly. But I want to be clear, I will not release this property unless I'm compensated fairly for the time that was wasted and the agreement that was not honored. Thank you.

Considering those were not the "facts" and I have written proof, I decided to give a factual response and let the attorney handle the rest. I'm dealing with a "live" one here who thinks he is a real estate broker.

@jay hinrichs No, it was not Homevestors. Just another unscrupulous wholesaler. Unfortunately, I have contacted an attorney to handle this issue.  I just want the cloud removed. The attorney was talking about getting damages since the current contract will be lost.  I just want clear title back at this point. No more wholesalers for me.

We're in Florida, and I reached out to an attorney to forward him a letter. It remains to be seen how determined he is to escalate this matter, which could be resolved quite easily.

I have been working in the real estate industry since 2003, and I must say that I have never encountered the issues with wholesalers that I am currently facing. In March 2022, we entered into a contract to sell one of our properties. Initially, we believed the wholesaler to be the end buyer. However, after signing the contract, the wholesaler began negotiating and insisted on reducing the price. We were not willing to go any lower, but after prolonged negotiations, the wholesaler finally met our price.

Unfortunately, we encountered a problem with the title, as a cloud had been placed on the property by the city. As a result, we were unable to proceed with the closing. In light of this issue, my husband made the decision to repair the house and rent it out instead.

To our surprise, in late April 2022, we received a demand letter from the wholesaler's attorney, requesting the return of the binder and demanding that we sell the property to him. We complied and returned the binder, but the title issue still persists to this day. Now, due to personal circumstances such as a death in the family and funeral costs, we are in urgent need of selling the property.

However, the wholesaler is refusing to release the memorandum of contract unless we pay him $10,000. It's important to note that we never signed a memorandum of contract, nor were we informed in the purchase sale agreement that such a memorandum would be put in place. While I understand the need for protection against unscrupulous investors or other wholesalers, this situation does not fall into that category. I am uncertain of the legality of these actions.

Could you please provide guidance on whether this is a legal course of action?