Buyers agent off by $8,000

[Anonymous]

It's been months ago mow

[StartingOver10]

Months???  What lender are you using?  That is a RESPA violation. The LO must have provided you one in a stack of paperwork earlier in the transaction. If not, definitely discuss this with the LO.

Of course now all the rules are different beginning Oct 3, 2015. But those applications that were made prior to Oct 3rd are still running under the previous rules.

[Anonymous]

Though not likely with her level of experience, it's possible that she had no working relationship/knowledge of that particular lender and their tendencies.  Our agent went directly to the LO with our proposed offer to get exact numbers before she finalized and submitted it to the seller.  Still, I imagine that any business is going to be more understanding if someone claims some responsibility for a mishap, i.e. not asking enough questions to the LO before this point.

I'm not trying to beat you up, trust me.  I'm working on my own aneurysm over this whole process, and when things are not as they were promised, trust is immediately broken.  It's hard to ask questions when you don't know what exactly that you don't know.  However, they are working for you, and there is NO stupid question.

[Wovenyarn]

As soon as I put a contract in on my house my LO sent me an estimate of what our closing costs would be. Also we had sellers pay $8000 which my realtor thought would be enough but a special assessment for taxes last year and a HO initiation fee and I ended up bringing money to the table when we thought it would be all paid for.

I find it hard to believe that closing costs would be so low in NY...$5k seems awful low. Clearly there was a communication breakdown because the realtor doesn't get paid if the contract doesn't go thru. I can't see a realtor knowingly recommending a contract that you told her upfront you would not be able to close on.

[2b2rich]

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@Anonymous wrote:
we decided to hire a buyers agent to represent us in our house purchase. We found the house ourselves, knew what we wanted to pay... Basically hired her to negotiate on our behalf. We were up front that we had only enough cash to put money down so our offer must have the sellers paying closing costs. We were very clear with her. When the counter offer came back, it was right where we wanted with $5,000 sellers concession. Having never bought in NY before, and trusting our agent, we asked if that would cover the closing costs. Her reply was that $5,000 would be more than enough.
Here we are with our GFE and she was off by about $8,000. Closing costs are around $13,000.
We have no money to close. Do we have any options??
When we asked our agent what the hell happened her reply was "that's all the seller would give. Sometimes banks offer specials. You should have talked to the bank"

We wouldn't have accepted this counter offer had we known. I mean we have no money. So...

We are going to lose so much cash on top of this house. Closing is supposed to be in a week.

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Are you sure she isn't friends with the sellers??  

regardless of whether you had your terms with this realtor in writing, she knew that you didn't have finances for any closing costs and that you needed the seller to pay all.  This woman should NEVER have negotiated with the seller without seeing your GFE first, so that she would have a good idea that all would be covered.  She should NEVER have told you that it was more than enough without first seeing a GFE from your lender.  That's my opinion.  

[StartingOver10]

2b2rich is exactly right about  "She should NEVER have told you that it was more than enough without first seeing a GFE from your lender."

The fees come from the lender and the title company/closing attorney. I would ask the Realtor to go back in and re-negotiate the amount based on the GFE you received from the lender yesterday (or whenever you got it).

Otherwise you will need to cancel because you don't have the funds to close unless you can get the lender to pay the difference in costs.

One questions: How did you get your approval if you couldn't show enough funds to close? The u/w checks to make sure you have the funds before issuing the CTC.

[Anonymous]

Was there a particular item that ballooned the closing costs?  Was it a true closing cost?  For example, I'm closing on a house in PA, and the lender closing costs are under $5,000, but I have to prepay $4,000 worth of taxes at closing, which bloats things higher.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for the help.

I was up so late trying to understand this. Our lender has been no help in giving us a straight answer. One day they said we should have to bring very little, the next day it's oh, wait, we didn't include this or that....

I will stil call in a moment when the office opens up.

To clarify a couple things:

We did receive the GFE in the correct amount of time. (We just received a preliminary hud)

We have reviewed the GFE, but never got a straight answer as to wether the $5,000 sellers concession and/or our deposit (down payment) was included in the costs or if it was in addition too.

When the lender (underwriter) checked out bank account, none of our bills had been taken out for the month. So there was a very high balance.

[StartingOver10]

Now that you have a preliminary HUD1 you should see the seller credit of $5000 plus the credit for your down payment (look at page one in the 200 section to see the credits)

In addition, you should see a large credit from the seller for the taxes for 2015 (assuming you pay your taxes in arrears in your area like we do here).

The HUD1 is the actual amount you need to bring to closing - assuming it is correct. Generally the title co won't distribute the HUD1 until it has been reviewed by your lender so the figures should be correct. EDIT to add:  if the title co doesn't have the closing package then your preliminary HUD1 may not include the lender figures.  Check to see if the figures are filled in on the borrower side on page 2.

[Anonymous]

The hud does not include the lenders figures. Anyway to get this info from the GFE?
The lender has not returned any of my calls or emails today.