 Saving
house sale better than being right
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 Dear
Real Estate Adviser,
My dad was all set to sell an investment house he owned, but on
the day he got a signed contract, he passed away very suddenly.
Now the buyer is saying that my dad verbally agreed to make more
improvements to the property. There's nothing in the contract about
these "promises." We don't want to mess up the sale, since
it would mean income for mom. But I'm uneasy about this "verbal
agreement" that will cost her hundreds of dollars. Do we go
ahead and make the improvements or challenge the verbal agreement
and risk losing the sale?
-- Chuck
 Dear
Chuck,
First, condolences to you and your family on your loss. Selling
a home -- even an investment house -- under such adverse circumstances
is stressful enough without the added element of the buyer chiming
in about undocumented promises.
Legally, you're in pretty good shape. Verbal agreements
not only don't hold water, they don't have enough substance to blot
up that water if it spills.
In other words, without a written promise, the buyer
is essentially all wet. Real estate agreements, like other important
accords, have to be in writing so that all terms of a sale are crystal
clear to both parties.
It may well be that your father agreed to tie up a
few loose ends around the place before he passed away, but it also
may be that the buyer is taking advantage of the situation and trying
to milk a few last-minute concessions out of your family. I hope
the latter is not the case. Either way, if nothing was written,
nothing was obligated. Only in rare instances where a verbal promise
worth thousands of dollars was proffered in the presence of third-party
witnesses will such commitment be taken seriously in court, and
even then, chances of an ideal outcome for the plaintiff are pretty
slender.
But your concern that a compromise might need to be reached to
complete the transaction is a valid one, particularly if you're
trying to sell a home in one of the nation's many flat real estate
markets.
You don't mention if any licensed agents are involved and who,
if anyone, is holding an escrow deposit of what size. Those facts
can affect your decision one way or the other. A buyer, for instance,
would be hard-pressed to walk away from a large earnest money deposit
by insisting on a few hundred dollars worth of improvements. A small
deposit, on the other hand, is easier to turn your back on.
Your situation seems to boil down to a cost equation.
If the estimated value of the work is less than $1,000, for example,
or is within another relatively modest price range that you can
readily accept, you might just want to just go ahead and give the
buyer a credit for that amount and be done with it. Certainly, your
grief-stricken family doesn't need the pressure of having to re-prep
and re-market a house, especially with average times on the markets
growing and buying pools shrinking. What's more, trying to void
the contract could result in legal claims being made, by the buyer
which could tie up a sale to anyone for quite some time.
I suspect your mother might even quietly agree, even
if she suspects the buyers are trying to pull a fast one at the
expense of her late husband. While you're technically right that
verbal contracts are -- as the old saw goes -- "not worth the
paper they're printed on," it's also true that moral victories
can leave you bankrupt, and some winnable battles are best left
for another day.
But if I was a betting man, I'd say the best odds in this situation
favor accepting the slightly tainted terms of this sure-thing sale
and giving mom the financial cushion she deserves and probably needs.
But make sure it's all in writing this time. Good luck!
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