Eddie Sacapano, one of my fellow Realtors at RE/MAX of Wasilla, suggested that I write something about avoiding unexpected problems just before closing. It seems that he recently had a situation where a VA buyer was qualified by a lender prior to entering into a transaction. Then, just two days before closing the transaction, Eddie was told by the same lender that the buyer may not qualify for a VA loan because of missing paperwork. The young family had just moved up from the states intending to live in their house. As you can imagine, they weren’t happy to get this unpleasant news.
As Realtors, our job is to help make each transaction as smooth as possible. To do this, we work with many other professionals. In every transaction we depend on the services of loan professionals, appraisers, inspectors, engineers, surveyors, home owners associations, title companies, contractors, and attorneys. Our job is to coordinate the actions of all of these people so that nothing is done before it should be, and nothing is late.
If an appraisal is ordered before the inspection, for example, the money may be wasted because the buyer has every right to cancel the contract if an unexpected problem is discovered by the inspector. We need to order the survey before the title and engineers job can be finished. Over time, we develop a working relationship with these people and learn who can be counted upon to get the job done on time and correctly.
As should be expected when working with humans, someone may forget a deadline, or miss an important detail. Even Realtors can sometimes make mistakes J When this happens, we usually all just get together and work extra hard to make up for lost time. However, when a professional messes up and blames the problem on someone, or something, else that results I lack of trust. It often sends us in search of new people to add to our trusted working partners.
It is important for the buyer, seller, Realtors on both sides of a transaction, and everyone else to work together in good faith. Problems occur when important details are not communicated to the other parties in the transaction.
Thankfully, in Eddies situation, he was able to scramble around and by calling the presidents of several title companies, uncover the missing paperwork needed to allow his buyers to qualify for their VA loan and move into their new home.
