On Fri, 06 Apr 2007 22:25:31 -0700, Tim Smith
wrote:

In article ,
mm wrote:
So why didn't you allow the buyers to move in as tenants until escrow
closed?

I have heard that that is a bad idea, but generally a contract
provides a time limit of maybe 45 days for the buyer to get a mortgage
and close.

If the buyer couldn't close for some reason, why couldn't the seller
go find another buyer after the contract expired?

What if the tenants don't buy, but also don't move out?

FTR, I wasn't talking about letting them move in. I said that I had
heard that was a bad idea, and your objection is one of the reasons it
is a bad idea.

In the second paragraph, I was asking why the seller had to wait the
whole winter until the 6 mos. minimum time had elapsed so that the
original buyer could complete the sale. When the buyer didn't get
financing in time to complete the purchase in the time limit stated in
the contract, he could have sold the house to someone else.

I've noticed on tv court shows that when someone sells a house or a
car or rents an apartment, and other people call later, at most they
say, "Call back in a few days. Maybe the sale won't have gone
through." What they should do is save the phone numbers of everyone
who calls, before or after, in case a deal falls through. This is
better for all concerned.

In this case, when it was clear that the buyer needed 6 months, the
seller might well have been able to end the contract in less than what
the contract stated, certainly if he had the agreement of the buyer,
and maybe without it if the buyer was making no efforts to get a
non-FHA mortgage. I would check with a lawyer on this of course, but
if the FHA has already told the buyer she won't get a mortgage within
the contract time, and the buyer is making no other demonstrable
efforts to get a mortage within that time, the seller might be able to
buy her out of the contract say for 100 dollars, if another buyer is
found, and that's a lot cheaper than the seller paying mortgage, taxes
and utilities for the rest of the 6 months.



Then you've got
a very annoying situation on your hands.

I've heard of similar things happening when a buyer lets the seller stay
after closing, because the seller's new house won't be ready yet, and
then the seller's new house falls through, and the seller doesn't move
out.

If you are a buyer, it's a very good idea to not close until the house
is empty, and if you are a seller, it's a very good idea to not let the
buyer take position until after closing. Anything else is asking for
trouble.