Closing date delayed

19 years ago

There is a home with a purchase and sale signed, inspection done, loan rate locked (for a limited time), home insurance purchased and a substantial deposit hopefully sitting in an interest bearing account. The closing date was to be tomorrow 12/15 because the sellers wanted this home sold quickly. The buyers now need to wait to close after a court date set on January 9, 2007 because it has been discovered the sellers did not have a license to sell this home.

How can someone list a home without this important document??

It has been mentioned the two sisters who inherited this home are not on good terms. It appears this is causing problems for the sale of this home. They each have their own attorney, not good news in my mind. There is limited information available to the buyers.

Thankfully the buyers hired a lawyer to review the purchase and sale and he added a protection for them to back out if something delayed the closing. Now knowing this he was worth the fee. They will wait until the court date with hopes they can get the same rate once the current rate expires. It was a great find priced close to assesment so it is hard to walk away.

Anyone had a similar situation?

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Comments (7)

cordovamom
19 years ago
I'm a little confused, I didn't know you needed a license to sell a home. Is this needed in your state, or am I misunderstanding something?
dragonfly_
Original Author
19 years ago
I have never heard of it either. Could it be a probate issue?
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minet
19 years ago
dragonfly, do you mean the sellers don't have the *right* to sell this house, that the deed isn't in their names?

Good thing the buyers have an attorney. He can probably help them sort through this mess.

Can you give us more information?
cordovamom
19 years ago
Minet,

That would make more sense, they may not have the legal right to sell the home. This sometimes happens in probate, or I had a friend that was divorced and found out through some mess up with paperwork that she didn't have the right to sell a home. It was later straightened out but not without some inconvenience to the buyer. Unfortunately if this is a probate issue it could take longer to get it straightened out, probate is not a quick process.
dragonfly_
Original Author
19 years ago
All I know is the the buyers attorney called and notified them the closing was being postponed because the sellers did not have the necessary document needed to sell the house. The next call stated that closing would be longer because the sellers had a court date January 9 and referred to a license to sell.
The information shared about the sellers legal issues were basic as listed above. If I were the one on the other end of the phone I would have dug deeper to find out what they meant by "license to sell". I will ask her to find out what this document is. This is DD's future home so this is the only information she gave me. I am worried now that this house might be a problem to sell. I will not burst their bubble just yet. This is their first home. It fit their budget and is in good shape compared to others they looked at. Just cosmetic updates needed. Hope it works out for them.
feedingfrenzy
19 years ago
I believe that a license to sell is granted by the probate court to the executor or administrator of the estate when the personal property in the estate isn't sufficient to meet the debts and costs owed by the estate. The idea is that the executor can use some or all of the proceeds from the sale of the house to satisfy these creditors.

Sounds like somebody involved with this transaction jumped the gun and put the house on the market without going through all the legal hoops. Since I know virtually nothing about this area of law, I have no idea how this deal is likely to shake out. The DD might do well to consult a real estate attorney.
susana_2006
19 years ago
I was in the same situation a year ago. When my mother died, she had all her documents in order (so it seemed). She had a living trust and her property had been deeded to the trust. So the house was listed with a broker and we were all set. HOwever in finding other papers, it turned out that she had been the victim of a predatory loan. She had been talked into some home improvements and had taken out a loan. The scammers even brought a notary to the house to do loan documents -- which also included deeding the home back to herself as an indivudual.

Luckily, we found out before the home had been listed very long. It took about six months to sort it out -- the attorney petitioned the court to return the property to the trust, which they did. It probably could have been done quicker by selling it under porbate court jurisdiction.
Good luck
Susan