I had to go back and look at my texts to be sure of the date this last round of hell started.
On MAY 7th the lovely Jeanene and I were informed that the paperwork for the quit claim deed was allegedly incorrect (I say allegedly because I thought the closing lawyer was wrong). I was very confused as I had taken the form (prepared my ex’s lawyer in 2019) to the County Clerk’s Office myself and had it recorded, so it was not possible because they accepted it!
In a series of texts and phone calls it was discovered that the paperwork was prepared wrong. See if you can follow this: There is a provision when you buy property with another person called Rights of Survivorship – “it means that the property shares of one co-tenant are transferred directly to the surviving co-tenant (or co-tenants) upon their death. While ownership of the property is shared equally in life, the living owners gain total ownership of any deceased co-owners’ shares.” And when you do a quit claim deed the paperwork has to establish that the joint owners deed the property to the single owner (basically meaning we have to deed the property to me in layman’s terms). With me so far? Oh and no it was not brought up during the sale of the house and 58 acres (seems the first attorney chose to overlook it🙄).
How do we fix this you ask? By contacting my ex of course and getting him to re-sign a new form, witnessed and notarized that I also need signed in front of a witness and notary 🤦♀️. And at this point I know that I CAN’T call him (remember that thing I did back in February when I thought I was done with him?) because there is no way he will answer me. So, the closing lawyer agrees to contact his attorney and work it out with them (which I’m sure I’ll pay for at closing 😬) This was around May 10th. Now we are supposed to close before the end of the month, which means May 28th at the latest. 18 days should be doable, right?
Lo and behold the issue has been resolved and we are set to close, supposedly (May 12th text). I text Jeanene “Btw I’m not getting ready to kick that football yet, Lucy” and then the waiting began for an actual date.
May 24th – no date set yet, so I reluctantly check in. Seems that my asshat ex had not returned the paperwork and we cannot close without it 🤬🤬🤬. Apparently, he was out of town the week before, but his lawyer said he mailed it out that day (Monday for reference).
Tuesday, June 1st (the eventually scheduled closing date) we got nothing. June 2nd – have my dad contact him politely asking when and where he mailed it. He stated that he mailed it the previous Monday to his lawyer, so we left it alone. It finally shows up June 4th (remember it was allegedly sent on May 24th) and we get the word – we are CLOSING!
Only, HA HA jokes on me – he didn’t have it notarized or witnessed!!! I wish I was making this s🤬🤬t up! The new buyers can’t believe it (thankfully they realize it’s not me causing the problem), Jeanene can’t believe it. Me? I was both surprised and not surprised. Oh, and the closing attorney – out of town for two weeks – so no help there 🤦♀️! And my ex’s attorney, who caused this whole mess in the first place, has decided she is done dealing with Jeanene/us on this whole thing. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!
But I got the last laugh as the title company took into account that I had the original (if wrong) quit claim deed, my divorce decree (which apparently they must have pulled 😳) and the new, if unwitnessed, signed form and we officially closed today, thanks to another attorney stepping in 🍾🍾🍾!
That isn’t to say we didn’t have a moment or two at the closing where the new buyer actually said if he couldn’t get a satisfactory response to some alleged issue I didn’t even know about, he was not ready to sign today (joke would have been on him though because I would have walked from the deal 😆😆). It didn’t help that his demeanor was a lot like my ex’s 🤢. Luckily for him he came to his senses and the transaction was completed (well completed after they had to redo the paperwork since they misspelled my first name, because of course 🙄 🤣🤣). Don’t even get me started on how they screwed up the tax proration 😜😜 (it was way higher than it should have been – it was resolved)!
I share this story, not only to amuse you with this ridiculous tale, but to share the wisdom I’ve gained from this entire experience. In my long history of buying and selling homes, these two sales (House and 58 acres and the 100 acres) have had the strangest, most convoluted issues to overcome. I hope I never encounter anything like this again.
Things learned from this process: you can’t get a conventional loan for a house with more than 24ish acres (unless you are putting a large sum down); always use a real estate attorney for anything property related; a quit claim deed does not take you off of the mortgage (not something I encountered but just knowledge that I have 😊); problems can happen when selling property, so be prepared; always read everything closely, mistakes can/do happen and the devil is in the detail; and an amazing agent can make the whole difference, whether you’re buying or selling.
The only piece left is for the owners to pay off the 50k loan I extended to them by the end of August and that chapter of my life will finally be over! We’ll call this The Final Chapter – let’s see if that goes off without a hitch 🤞(based on the history I’ve had with this property, I’m doubting it will go smoothly 😆).
Mad love goes to Jeanene – I’m not sure many real estate agents would have gone the distance on this one 🤣🤣🤣.
Note: If you’re interested in reading the entire saga, click the tag at the bottom Selling, Buying Moving 😁.
My Lemons My Lemonade 