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Clear to Close

January 24th, 2024

Town Square, Dubai


As I woke up, I checked my phone and there it was the message I was waiting to receive from the lender: "clear to close".


This was a very hard deal. I assisted the seller to purchase the property back in 2022 via land trust which the goal was to sell the shares through tokens on the block chain. Their plans didn't work, and 2 years later, they had to sell the property.


We put the property bon the market for $375,000, which I warned my client it was way overpriced. After one month with no interest at all from buyers, we reduced the price to $369,000.00. But it wasn't enough. We were still very off on what was trading in that building. Another month went by and another price reduction was done. We were now at $359,000.00


Despite our reductions, nothing was happening. The situation was that everyone got used to a couple of years ago where it felt that anything you would put for sale woudl be sold for a price above the asking price, even if it was already overpriced. That was not our case. Another price reduction, and now we were at $345,000.00


Finally showing requests started to come through. After a week of the price reduction, we went through around 5 showings, all of them I coordinated from Dubai, and the realtors representing the buyers would access via lockbox. Another week went by, and no offers coming.


After 2 or 3 weeks after the last price reduction, we got our first offer: $335,000.00, cash deal. I submited it to the seller, with the proof of funds. The seller thought it was too low and wanted to negotiate and sent an counter offer at $338k, just $3k above the original offer. The buyer went M.I.A and never returned our counter. The seller blamed the buyer, as all sellers do, and said "he was not a serious buyer", whatever that means. Passing that episode, I suggested to adjust the price to $335,000.00, after all, that was the only offer we got, making it the closes to a market price.


With the new price, we started to receive many showing requests. I was getting 3-4 a day. One by one, they went to see the property. Soon, we got to 50 showings and no new offers. The seller would ask for feed backs, but no one would give me, until one realtor did. And I couldn't believe what he said.


When the owner contacted me to list this property, was at the end of 2022, I believe around December, Maria and I were getting ready to move to Dubai. The seller was Canadian and called me asking to meet him at the property. There he told me he invested $40,000.00 to renovate the unit, and now he was just finishg some details: he was going to furnish it and in a couple of weeks we would be ready to list it. I left the meeting, sent him the listing agreement, he sent it back signed and everything seemed ok to start. But it wasn't.


In the following weeks, nothing happened. I was constantly asking for updates on the construction and furniture, so I could take pictures and get things done. Nothing wuold happen. He woudn't even answer my emails, phone calls, or whatsapp messages. I moved to Dubai and forgot about it.


May 2023 came, his associate called me, appologized and picked things up and told me they were not going to furnish it and they would list as it was. Then, I hired the photographer, took professional pictures and listed the property, thinking was clompleted, but as I would learn from the feedback of that one realtor, it wasn't.


After going for more than 60 showings, one realtor said their client was going to put an offer and sent me a contract for $320,000.00, along with some pictures of inside of the property. The kitchen cabinets were all damaged, with the edges sticking out and some doors that didn't close properly. The owner countered it back at $325,000.00. Once again crickets replied, and the buyer vanished.


At this point, we were heading to 100 showings and the client was extremely frustrated, and told me they they were thinking of taking out of the market and just renting it. I then, did a rental study and showed them that they would need to invest about $25,000.00 to make the unit ready to rent, and they would have to pay 1 month commission and start paying the $8k special assessment. It just wasn't worthwhile to keep the unit. We lowered the price once, finally achieving the market price at what I originally suggested: $325,000.00.

Within a few days of lowering the price, we received another offer at $320,000.00. This time, the seller was well educated on the conditions of the market and accepted the offer. All the procedures to closing happened untul the day the tile company called and said there was a problem with the title and they couldn't close.


As the property was bought under a land trust, the underwriter saw some language in the corporate documents that all beneficiaries of the trust must agree with the sale. The problem was that they sold some tokens at the blockchain and had no idea who was or were the beneficiaries and would not be able to get their approvals. Despite all the efforts on changing the language on the documents, the buyer withdrew the offer, after 40 days under contract.


At the same day, I put the property back on the market and texted everyone that showed some kind of interest on it and got it under contract again under 24 hours.


With all the documentation sent, the transaction was going smoothly. We passed Christmas and the new year's and all was well to close the deal on January 16th. Everything was going fine, until the lender of the buyer sent me a message that the bank was having trouble to approve the Association and he didn't know what to do. The lender told me they were going to talk to the bank on the next day to try to solve the problem. Once again, I started to text and email everyone that showed the property to their client. Almost 50 people were contacted, and I went to bed.


The following day was one of the longest days in my life. With the time difference between Miami and Dubai, I would have to wait an extra day to know what was going to happen.

When I woke up on the morning of the second day, I got the message from the lender: "all is good". However, we needed to exptend the closing date as the HOA had to send an extra document. I was representing the seller and i twas not my job to follow on this, but I could not take changes. The lender said the Association asked for 7 days to provide the information. For 7 days I called them and the lender asked for updates, unsuccessfully.


On the week of the closing, I called the HOA 10 am EST. They didn't answer. I called again 10:15, 10:30, 10:45, with not them even picking up the phone. I decided them to call the front desk and left a message for them to call me back. I asked the seller and the lender to do the same. Half an hour later, the HOA called me and provided the information the lender asked for. Two days later we received the clear to close and scheduled the closing for Thursday. Everything seemed good to go, however...


At 2am Dubai time, I received a call from the buyers agent asking for the keys. I said I was going to get back on that. I checked my email and no signs of closing from the title company. I cannot relase the keys without a confirmation of closing. I sent them an email asking for it. Fime minutes later, they tell me the lender make the wire $5k short and they were waiting for the final amount. I was worried as it was almost 5pm in Miami. I felt asleep waiting.


Around 3pm, Maria woke up to go to the bathroom and I woke up with her noise. I check the email, and there it was: "all has been funded." I checked the account, and the money was there.


I went back to sleep.

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