Ari's Sale

This sale for Ari the Felon has never sat well with me. Call it a gut-feel. Or indigestion. Or experience, masking as intuition.

Anyway, let me start by saying--and I checked yesterday so I know this to be true--there is nothing else for sale that meets Ari's criteria and in his price range at this time. We found the unicorn. And now he is buying it.

However, the unicorn in question has come with its own set of challenges. First, the selling agent has been a bit dishonest and sloppy. We started off on a bad note that has only gotten more stiffly polite as time has moved forward. After sending him a Cure Notice early on (a Cure Notice being a vote of no confidence and an incredible insult), I crossed my fingers I would never need a favor from this dude.

Second, I did not pick the loan officer for this sale. Ari's mama did. She worked for this bank at one time in the mortgage department and called in a few favors. When it was time to meet the loan officer, I asked a few pointed questions to make sure he knew what he was doing. In general, agents don't care to work with mortgage officers who work for banks because banks don't really care about contracts and they work at their own speed in their own time. This loan officer is no exception. However, the contract clearly states if certain tasks aren't done in a timely manner, Ari will loose his earnest money at the very least and could end up losing his unicorn.

Third, Mama bear is a nosy busybody. She is mostly taken care of, as I completely ignore her. The loan officer isn't so lucky. She and her minions are breathing down his back. Plus she seems to control the marionette strings attached to Ari. Ari thinks the world of her.

We are a few days away from Ari losing his earnest money because the loan officer did not handle some basic tasks. Maybe it is just me, but if the appraisal was done on February 15 and I was the loan officer, I wouldn't have spent three weeks staring at the ceiling wondering when it would drop in my lap. It isn't as if I didn't call the dude twice a day and ask where it was. It isn't as if the other agent wasn't asking the loan officer where it was either. Seriously, I don't get it.

Additionally, the loan officer was trapped up by a (to me) minor chore that is REQUIRED ON EVERY SALE. The task didn't happen last week and it took the selling agent yelling at me (twice, once on Friday and once on Monday) and the loan officer for the loan officer to figure out how to make it happen.

Because of all of the above, this sale isn't closing on time. That means Ari's earnest money is about to be non-refundable. It also means I am going to be slapped with a cure notice in a couple of days. In addition to the implied meaning of a cure notice, it also allows the seller to cancel the sale. So, I need that favor from the other agent--have his client sign a contract extension.

After talking to the agent today, I am not sure they are willing to do this. The seller doesn't have to. He can force the earnest money to become non-refundable. And because the selling agent isn't very happy with me he is being punitive. "No my client isn't going to sign the addendum," he barked.

I have spoken with all parties and gotten nowhere. I feel helpless and frustrated. And I keep wondering if there was a way to have listened to my gut-feel weeks ago and have saved Ari from this mess. Hopefully if this sale closes, his home will be be just as magical as he wants it to be.