How to Manage Seller Drama (LA 1339) - a podcast by Steven Butala & Jill DeWit

How to Manage Seller Drama (LA 1339)

Transcript:



Steven Butala:

Steve and Jill here.



Jill DeWit:

Hello.



Steven Butala:

Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala.



Jill DeWit:

And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny Southern California.



Steven Butala:

Today Jill and I talk about how to manage seller drama. And I heard that there's a story here.



Jill DeWit:

Yeah. It just makes me giggle. When we just sat down for a minute and I looked up which topic this was, I remember the other day when I was dealing with this and it's just comical. It's so funny. These sellers, sometimes it's just drama around the situation. And like trying to sell something out from under somebody, which is really funny. That's the last place you want to be involved. And then there's the other kind of seller drama where they just paint the story of you should love and appreciate this land the same way my grandfather did and here's why. And I'm like, "Look, lady, I really don't care." It's so funny. Anyway, we'll talk about it more.



Steven Butala:

Before we get into it, let's take a topic or the question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free.



Jill DeWit:

Gary asks, I've never had this situation before or come up so far. One of the direct mail purchase offers was accepted, signed, and returned via mail. The seller apparently is very eager to sell. The seller began calling a couple of times a day and wanted a status report of when the purchase of his land would take place. I decided I did not wish to purchase this parcel because, not because of the seller drama.



Steven Butala:

This is seller drama.



Jill DeWit:

Kind of. But because the area was not as desirable as some other parcels and therefore the offer price was much more than I should have offered. His area was not nearly as valuable as a parcels I had based my price per acre on with my comps. I contacted the seller, made him aware that I had decided not to move forward with the purchase parcel. Now he says, if I do not purchase this parcel of land by the date written on my offer, is so funny, he will hire an attorney and sue me. I use the same offer letter been using from offers to owners template. Any thoughts about the legal circumstances and me not moving forward with a purchase and the seller threatening legal action? I now feel I need to add another clause to the offers to owners template contract for right to cancel within a period of due diligence. So darn funny. Do you want to go first?



Steven Butala:

Never in the history of ever, in all the times that Jill and I have been, let's just call it threatened or scolded. Scolded is more accurate. That's never come to anything. It's never actually even come to a discussion with the lawyer because I'm sure whatever lawyer looks at that says, yeah, I mean, there's all kinds. There's three ways. There's a clause in there that says we're going to review the property and if we don't want to buy it, we're not going to buy it. For any reason, right up to the day of closing, I think. And everybody in this string is really vocal about that.



Jill DeWit:

Oh yeah. Stuff happens.



Steven Butala:

Don't worry about it at all.



Jill DeWit:

And I've had it happen in the past, the other way around. I've been in escrow and ready to close and the guy changes his mind last minute. You know what? There's nothing you can do. Am I going to go after him?



Steven Butala:

No.



Jill DeWit:

It's fine. It's just funny.



Steven Butala:

Today's topic, how to manage seller drama. This is the meat of the show. I'll tell you,

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