Miami Real Estate Dilemma

Talk about a real Miami Real Estate Dilemma! – I have to tell you about this current situation with a real estate customer and we would like your opinion on this matter. Who do you think dropped the ball?

We have a seller that accepted an offer from a more than qualified buyer and everything seemed to be going perfectly…..until……let me tell you the sequence of events so you can know the facts.

The buyer came in with a very strong contract:

20% down in escrow
pre-qual letter for a loan amount in excess of purchase price
inspections were done
appraisal was perfect
condo approval completed
commitment letter from lender received
closing date verified

It does not get stronger than this, but then we got a call from the title company the day before the closing stating that the bank package had not arrived for the next day morning closing. We proceeded to contact the bank where the loan officer informed us that the underwriter requested an updated work permit or green card for the buyer.

WHAT??

We knew that the buyer worked for a large national fitness chain company and had filed taxes in the US for the past 5 years, and had a social security number. What we did not know was that the buyer was not a US citizen, was here on a worker’s visa, and his green card had expired 1 month before.

You need to realize that when you work the Miami Real Estate Industry, you deal with a lot of foreigners on a daily basis. We had never encountered these types of problems with someone who had filled taxes, had a social security number and worked for a major corporation. You would also assume that a large corporation would not have employees that are not legal in the US. Now we had to have the seller sign an addendum extending the closing date until this is resolved. The buyer is in limbo, the seller is in limbo and so is everyone involved in this transaction.

Should we begin asking for current work permits from all our customers? We definitely feel partly responsible for assuming he was current with his immigration status and have learned a valuable lesson. Let’s hope it is resolved quickly so we can finalize the transaction and make everyone happy.