broker at fault?? attorney?

If I was a bank I'd say it expires every week.......in this market. How old was it?

90days

huh? since when is your closing contigent on an apprasial? The apprasial should be simply the opinion of the buyer

This happened to me in the depths of the '07 credit crunch -- it most probably means that the lender is having its own problems and is looking for excuses to not lend. The brokers on the deal need to make sure that the new appraiser has strong recent comps available, and the mortgage broker should be leaning HARD on the lender to come through and fulfill its commitment.

Your worst case is that current lender backs out and the buyer has to come up with a new loan commitment, which will set your closing back a month and a half. Be very very nice to your buyer, because this experience is probably even freakier for them than it is for you.

good luck!

ali r.
{downtown broker}

thanks... so even if the contract is do to expire in two weeks.. my buyer is still obligated to get a loan based on the original purchase price?

is your contract contingent on financing?

yes

my question is who dropped the ball? my attorney or my real estate agent?

we were operating with the assumption that we had time... not aware of the apprasial expiration..

I hope your buyer remains interested and willing to wait because they may have a way out if they showed reasonable efforts to secure funding but didn't get it.

We've been seeing this for awhile, even on deals that close within 90 days. A bank can ask for another appraisal at any time - I'm not aware of any rules limiting the banks in this regard. The key is not to panic, but to make it as easy for the appraiser/bank/buyer as you possibly can. Try to keep in mind the fact that everyone will feel better if the property appraises (even the bank), so you have that to look forward to. Make sure everyone is communicating clearly - this is a chance to stick together as a team, not look for someone to blame.

Tina
(Brooklyn broker)

tina's so nice! I'd totally be looking to blame people. And it makes me outraged that a bank needs to do two appraisals within 90 days . . that's just BS.

She is right though, that at this stage you just want to hold the deal together.

However, you might want to look at your contract. If your contract is contingent on financing, there's a "clock" in it -- x days from contract sign to begin mortgage process, y days from beginning mortgage process to loan commitment, etc.

If buyer had loan commitment, and you put closing 90 days past that, I'd say that's maybe on the real estate agent for not explaining to you what you were risking by dawdling . ..If buyer didn't move fast enough to get loan commitment despite the clock, maybe there's a technical default there and it's on the buyer.

ali r.
{downtown broker]