Should I Listen To My Client’s Parents?
It seems a straight forward and easy
question to answer, but it really bugging me for days. Please
read the situation and let me know what you think. First, let me
explain and give you some information about each party and our
relationships.
Clients Group#1: Young Couple with a kid:
Wife and husband are in their mid 30’s and have a cute daughter
of 2 years old. They live in a rental house about 20 minutes
away from the Grand Parents. For simplicity, I refer them as “Daughter”
in this article. They are the steady income producer in this
transaction.
Clients Group#2: The Grand Parents:
Wife and husband are elderly in their mid 60’s and are the
parents of the wife above. They own a small two-story house, but
both have knee problems and cannot go upstairs. Specially, the
husband had had a back surgery a couple of years ago that it
didn’t go well and since then he is limping and walking very
slowly. They take care of their grandchild every day, at least
for a couple of hours, and they love it. They have a lot of
friends close to their residence and they visit them regularly.
For simplicity, I refer them as “Grand Parents” in this
article. They are the sources of down payment in this
transaction.
Our Relationships: The parents are a
family friend of mine who I know them since I was a kid and I
look at them as my parents. I had seen the daughter and her
husband a couple of times here in US.
Situation: Once, while the Grand
Parents visiting me, they said they have talked to the daughter
& her husband and they have decided to purchase a bigger house
with at least two bedrooms downstairs that they all move in
together. It saves them a lot of times for not going back and
forth to each other houses to take care of the kid and also this
allows the grand parent to stay down stair in which they don’t
have to use the stairs. It will be a win-win solution for
everybody. So, they asked me to look for some houses close the
place they now own with some requirement such as two bedrooms in
down stair, etc.
I have searched and found some nice houses
in nice neighborhoods that met their requirements. But, while
the Grand Parents liked most of them, none of them was good
enough for the daughter. Still I was searching, that I received
last week a list of acreage ranches home, about 100 miles away
from the Grand Parents current resident in the middle of nowhere
about 2 hours drive. I got very surprised, but scheduled the
showing and we all went there. I took the Grand Parents with my
car, because we are living close to each other and the young
couple came with their car to meet at the houses.
It took me about 2 hours to get there and 3
hours to come back due to the rush hour traffic. It was puzzled for
me and to the Grand Parents that how she selected a house that far. She liked one of the houses and asked me to do some
research and come up with comps, which I did. After I provided
them the comp and pointed out some issues to be aware of, they asked me to
schedule the second showing, they wanted to see the house again
with "eagle eye" this time before making an offer.
The house is on top a hill with a lot of
stairs just to get to the first floor. I told her that these
steps do not work for your parents, but she said don’t worry we
buy this house for ourselves and they can buy theirs later! That
was a surprising statement and conflicts with the original
thoughts and plans. The parents cannot buy the house themselves,
due to limited income.
I scheduled the second showing, but the
parents did not come. After seeing the second time and spending
about 1 hour in the house, they asked me to prepare an offer
just for them (young couple only). The price that initially they
wanted to offer, justifies another chapter of a book or blog.
After going back and forth a couple of
times, Seller accepted another offer from another buyer and
they went in a contract. However, the seller’s agent contacted
me and said they are not sure if this buyer can fulfill their
obligation in a timely manner and if we want they can accept the
new offer meeting seller’s counter-offer to be placed as a back-up
contract. I convey the information to the Daughter and her
husband, they said is OK and they like to go that route,
accepting the Seller’s counter-offer and be in back-up position.
At this time, I received a call from the
Grand Parents that why I showed their daughter that house again
and made an offer, don’t you
know we cannot go there because it is too far from everybody we know and
has a lot of steps, … They said, if they could go up and down of
stairs they could stay in their current house. Basically, they got
upset of me why I showed the house to their daughter again. I
told the Grand Parents that I have told their daughter that
this house is not suitable for you, but she insisted that they
love the house and want to buy it for themselves now and you buy
another house for yourselves. They got very surprised and
speechless, could
not talk.
Honestly, this house is not good for the
young couple either and I have told them. But, they like it.
Now, they got some problems with credit
approval, it seems suddenly they got two unauthorized charges
from a Telephone company in California in their credit reports. I
put her in contact with a reliable lender and they are trying to
solve the credit problem as soon as possible.
When the Grand Parents found out about
that, they called me and showed disapproval of purchasing this
house. I told them why don’t you guys talk to her and tell her
that you don’t want to move in that house, etc. They said, she
doesn’t listen to us and she wanted we help her and we have to,
but we are not happy about this at all. They asked me not to help her to
resolve any issues such as credit report and any other issues
that could come up and
they pray that this deal doesn’t go through.
The Grand Parents asked me not to the help
the daughter and they like to see the deal doesn’t go through.
Currently, the daughter’s offer is in back-up
position, and personally, I hope it doesn’t get to the first
position. But, if it gets to the first position and should daughter
need some helps, referrals or something in that nature, should I
listen to the Grand Parents? Remember, if the daughter buys the
house, still the Grand Parents need to (have to) move in with their
daughter, therefore, they have some major problems as shown
below;
-
1.
Stairs
-
2.
They will be far away from their friend and lose their
contacts with them.
-
3.
Also, they will be far away from medical facilities,
hospitals, Doctors, etc.
The bottom line is, if they get to the
first position, Should I listen to the Grand Parents and
Terminate the deal?
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