You Cannot "Delegate" a Real Estate Transaction

Today we talk about a problem client.  Let's call her Jasmine.

Jasmine is supposed to be closing on her new home in a week.  She is supposed to be closing on her old home in a week and 10 days.  The amount that she will receive from the sale of her old house will more than cover the down payment for the new house.

Jasmine is an upper-middle-level executive at a large corporation.  She changed jobs a while ago, and now has a commute that is over an hour one way.  She came to me to sell her current house, and help her find a new home closer to work.  She is a very capable and intelligent woman with only one real problem:  Jasmine is over stressed.

During all of our discussions, and during meetings with her lender, she was advised that if she purchased a home before she sold her current home, she would have to take funds out of her current accounts to make her down payment.  Jasmine, her lender and I all had conversations about if she bought the new house first, she would be able to replace the money in her accounts quickly from the sale of her old house. That just makes sense, right?  The loan can't start, the property can't be transferred, nothing can happen unless the down payment is made.

Jasmine is now claiming that nobody told her that she would have to pull funds from her accounts to make a down payment.  Really?  She believes that just having her house "under contract" means that the down payment funds will be guaranteed to the Seller of her new home when the deal closes on her old home, and that the Seller of the new home should just wait for their money.  HUH?

Jasmine's stress level at her job, coupled with her demeanor of giving orders and expecting them to be carried out, has left her in a precarious position.  She doesn't remember all the details about what she does in her job - that is for somebody else.  However, she didn't remember the "details" (if you can consider the source of a down payment a "detail") of what she wanted done with her houses either.  She just "delegated" work to people.  The lender was to do the Lending, the appraiser was to do the Appraising, the inspector was to do the Inspecting, etc.  Everyone did their part, but Jasmine Didn't Get Involved.

Now she is also angry about having to store her belongings temporarily while transferring from one house to the other.  What was this woman thinking?

We are scrambling to extend the purchase date on the new house, and maybe move up the purchase date on the old house to minimize the amount of time required for the extension.

Jasmine could have avoided all this trouble, saved the energy from being angry, kept her life much simpler if she had just paid attention instead of pretending to pay attention.  I wonder how she manages at her job...

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