Friday the 13th

We knew we shouldn't have been so quick to go public about everything going so smoothly concerning the sale of our home. As soon as we posted our last blog telling how well everything was progressing things began to get dicey.

Our independent home inspection on Wednesday, February 4, had gone smoothly, we thought, with 21 minor items listed in a one-page summary in front of 24 pages of inspection reports, only two of which required our attention, and these two were easy to remedy. The others were routine maintenance items or recommended upgrades and improvements.

Item one pointed out that when we had our kitchen redone they installed an all new main electrical circuit breaker panel, but the electrician had failed to label all of the circuit breakers for what they individually controlled. So we spent a day shutting off one breaker at a time, tracking down every appliance, outlet, light and circuit that it controlled and correctly labeling it.

Item two pointed out that our chimney was last cleaned 5 years ago and should be professionally cleaned again. Our chimney sweep completed this job just two hours ago, after postponing for rain during this past week.

But in between these two events our Buyer separately ordered professional inspections on each of the other items in the home inspection (and many that were not) and asked each inspector/contractor to evaluate and recommend specific actions and provide cost estimates to perform. We had a solar panel inspection, a roofing inspection, a ceiling treatment inspection, a second termite and structure inspection (we previously tented and fumigated the home just 6 months ago), a pool equipment inspection, a home appraiser, a general contractor, and an architect who talked about home additions.

We still weren't too concerned though, as each of the inspectors complimented our home's excellent condition and said that they expected there would be no problem. Our Buyer, however, decided otherwise and refused to sign the release of contingencies as scheduled on Friday, the thirteenth of February. We had already voluntarily extended this time period to 30 days from the normal 17 after the signing of the contract to cooperate with the Buyer and allow all the inspections to proceed. But we should have had early warning that something might be amiss when, a few days before the deadline, the Buyer requested extending the contingency period up to the date of settlement, March 12th. We declined this request. If we had granted it the Buyer could withdraw from the purchase at no loss of deposit or contractual risk up to the very day of closing.

So, not to worry, anyway, eh? Having not extended the contingency period meant that it would lapse after the 30 days as it was stated in the contract, right? Wrong. It turns out that in California, contingencies don't lapse unless the Buyer says they do, in writing, and in order for that to happen they have to be willing to sign a contingency removal form. And obviously our Buyer wasn't willing to do that. Is that convoluted or what! The only way the Seller can force the issue is to execute a "Notice to Buyer to Perform," a sort of legal paper that gives the Buyer 24 hours to remove the contingencies or nullify the contract.

So we executed this legal action on the morning of February 14 expecting that everything would be resolved by the following day. Wrong again. The Buyer is out of town, we were told, away for the weekend, and couldn't be reached to receive and confirm receipt of our legal demand.

By this time we suspected that there was more to this than meets the eye. We conferred with our agent who warned us that when she had seen this kind of behavior before it usually resulted in the Buyer coming back with a collection of cost estimates from the Buyer's inspector/contractor/architects totaling tens of thousands of dollars of improvements and modifications expecting to force us at the last minute to lower our price if we wanted a deal on the day of settlement.

To put it mildly, this put us in a bind. We had already obligated ourselved to buy a home in Georgetown, Texas and the settlement date for that purchase was to be two days after the settlement on our California home. We also had already made arrangements to ship our piano to Tricia and Dan in Maryland, and separately to begin to move our entire household goods to our new home in Texas just a few days before settlement on the California home. And we had planned to be on the road to Texas on Monday, March 16.

After considerable discussion between us, much loss of sleep, some maximum strength antacid tablets, long walks along the ocean, a few glasses of wine, and answering many "what ifs," we decided to make it unequivocally clear to the Buyer's agent that if the Buyer, by close of business on Tuesday the 17th, didn't remove all contingencies and agree fully to the terms of the contract we would cancel the contract ourselves and relist the home on the market. We told our agent to proceed with the relisting and plan an open house this Sunday to seek other buyers. We were prepared to go back to square one and begin anew.

At the very end of the business day on Tuesday the 17th at 5:30 p.m. we received a call from our agent saying that the Buyer had finally signed the removal of any and all contingencies from the contract and we had a firm commitment to buy.

Now if this experience has taught us one thing it is this. Don't blog your successes before they are completed.

Be of good faith. We will report on our progress shortly.