Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Land deal gone bad at closing options??

I recently bought 100 acres from a guy in a land purchase. He lives on a county road that is more or less private as only his house and another land owner live on the road. The land in this area is highly sought after and is 4 minutes from town. I approached him about buying some land and he laughed in my face. Then a month later he called me wanting to sell out. He was supposedly going to sell me 100 acres and sell some land on another road that backs up to his place in total he was selling about 180 acres including my purchase. He found a new place on the river and he was using the money from both land sales to purchase it out right. My wife even helped him with the contract on his new purchase as she is a lawyer.

After we signed our contract, He asked that I respect his privacy and not go on the property until the deal was done. Only once in the last month did I even drive down the road the property is on which, I notified him I was going to do. He said it was ok to do that, however when I drove past and turned around to leave as the road dead ends he flagged me down and chewed my ass for coming down the road and upsetting his wife. I apologized and left. This land has been in his family since 1920 and has some sentimental value.

Time has gone on and today was the closing on the land. I was told he and his wife would be there. My wife and I arrived and signed all the papers and I rolled 250K in a 10-31 farm deal into it and got a loan for $75k to buy it. I also sold most of my equipment from my old farm as I would not need most of it on this new place as it is mostly timber. Anyways, He did not show to sign. I was told he and his wife would now come on Monday to sign. I asked him if everything was ok with our deal and why he did not show to sign. He said his wife was bit by a tick a few days ago and didn't feel good. He said she had improved today. The title people offered to take the paper work out to them to sign at their home. They refused. I asked him if me and my family could go out to the land and look around as I was only allowed to see it one day for 15 minutes. I was never allowed back on the place. He said no. He said his wife wants her privacy and they would go and sign the papers Monday morning.

Some how, I don't believe this is going to happen. He will blow 3 contracts and be sued by all involved and the title company if he does not sign. I am out thousands of dollars in closing costs and now only have 4 months to find land or pay taxes due to the 10-31 deal.

I was very calm and said ok, Monday is fine. I hope she feels better. I have my house that I live in listed for sale and a floor planned and builder lined up for this property to build a new house and live on. I have alot invested in this deal due to it being in the right school district for my two kids. Am I going to get screwed on this deal??????

He's a nut.

My opinion,..the transaction will never happen. If you're going to sue him you might as well get started on it.

If there is no lawyer involved, you might be screwed if he backs out.

My guess is, the land belonged to his wife's family and he married into it. He wants to sell it but his wife is doing the crazy wife routine on him over it.

His wife is a lawyer. I guess you will find out Monday if they are honest sellers or not.

He's got issues that are overrunning into a legal contract.

If he doesn't show Monday, I would be in touch with a real estate lawyer.

In fact, I would do so before Monday.

Oh yeah, did you get a survey?

I damned sure wouldn't trust anything he told you about the land, including acreage, encroachments, etc.

Show up in his driveway tomorrow morning and blow your horn and bang on his door and yell "Sign the damn PAPERS!!!!"

Yep....
What it sounds like.

Something sure sounds fishy. I assume you / your agent did a title search and he truly does own it? The only other thing I can think of is some sort of criminal activity.

Allowed to look at place for 15 mins????

Might be an EPA superfund tromaville toxic waste site somewhere on the place.....

Uncle Cletus shade tree garage dump site back in the day....

Be ready to file a lis pendens immediately as well. (Latin for litigation pending) Your wife will know what that is.

He might have gotten a higher offer and is a big enough a hole to sell it to someone else.

You need to cloud the title to it ASAP and force him to close, if he won't then your costs become economic damages that you can sue him for. You may not get it the near term but he won't be able to sell until the cloud on the title is cleared.

It's the legal way to put your knee on his neck until he screams "I can't breath!"

Good advice as in move NOW and don't wait.

Courts care very little about forcing specific performance.
If you want the place, try to work with the seller.
It is not Monday, yet.

Did you have title insurance or a title opinion by a lawyer?

By the way, there is no such thing as a "more or less private road." Another red herring.

You are correct for the most part for small time residential transactions.

And, working it out is always best.

I was talking a post Monday apocalypse.

But it can chase buyers away, and forces their hand to deal with you.

That deal smells pretty fishy to me. Sounds like his wife might be calling the shots. Hope it works out for you.

Fugg him and the horse he rode in on.

We bought our property from a crazy wife and a fairly normal husband. The asked for 45 days after closing till we took possession. There were a few other issues prior to closing, his wife driven. I told them that at closing it was ours and I expected the keys and everything out, and what was left is ours.

If they didn't acquiesce, I was more than happy to walk away. Crazy people, are in a word, crazy. I honestly don't care about their history, sucks for them, but that's not my problem.

Amen