A Foreclosure Story in Coconut Grove Part Two
July 13th, 2008 categories: Buying Real Estate in Coconut Grove
When we last left off on “A Foreclosure Story in Coconut Grove – Part One” my clients were waiting the bank’s approval of the counter offer. After 10 days we finally received all of the signed papers from the bank.
From the day of acceptance by the bank, my buyer had 7 days to complete all of the inspections on the home. Typically, in a non-foreclosure transaction the buyer will perform his inspections and if the amount required to fix the problems in the house exceeds the stated amount in the contract then the buyers can (A) get out of the deal, or (B) renegotiate the contract.
On this particular contract, the bank said that they would give him $5,000 back at closing but they would not renegotiate the deal no matter what the inspection report said. Or, he could cancel the contract at that point.
So the very next day he sent over some inspectors to begin the process. There was one major problem…..there was no water or electricity turned on in the house.
The inspectors did what they could, and we tried to get in touch with the other Realtor to get these things turned on. At this point, my client was not willing to buy the house without knowing the electrical and plumbing status of the home. We waited for the entire 7 days for the bank to turn on the utilities, but it was never done. On the last day of the inspection period, my client was ready to cancel the contract when the other Realtor called to let us know that she had gotten everything up and running.
We had to have both parties sign an extension of the contract so that my client could get in there to do his inspections.
In a foreclosure purchase, the buyer often has to take a leap of faith. In this case, my buyer did, and he agreed to go ahead with the sale even though the inspection report came back with many issues.
On Friday, my client was notified that the bank who was doing his loan would not release the money unless two things happened: the house had to be “habitable”, and the pool had to be “clear”.
If you recall from the last post, all of the appliances had been stripped from the kitchen. The bank said at the very least there needed to be a working stove installed before they would make the loan. This issue was resolved with a quick call to my handyman, who went over to 8th Street and bought a used electric stove to install in the kitchen. Now the house is “habitable”.
As to the second issue, the bank was worried that the pool was a liability because it was too murky to see the bottom. That was no problem either, we sent over a pool company to drain and clean the pool. 
We have now done everything that both sides have asked of us, and the closing is scheduled to take place this week.
Click here to read The End To A Very Long Foreclosure Story
