Finding Bad Apples in real estate?

Unfortunately, sometimes things just don't go according to plan. Bad apples exist everywhere, especially in the real estate market. You do your best to avoid them, but the problem with bad apples is that they may look great on the outside, and there's no way to know about that worm waiting for you to bite!

I have a client who recently purchased a foreclosure as an investment. The deal itself was straightforward. He was paying cash, could close immediately, and wasn't asking for closing help.

The bank was insistent that we use their particular title company. It's not uncommon to see that, banks often like to work with one company over and over because the processors are familiar with each other, and (in theory) it should help move the transaction along quickly.

The problem was that the title company was one of those bad apples. They forgot to show up for settlement, and in order to get the closing done we ended up hiring a notary to sign all of the paperwork and have it hand delivered to their office, which was 70 miles away.

We were fortunate to have a notary that was able to get the settlement paperwork notarized in the absence of a title officer. We were more fortunate that they were able to deliver the paperwork to the title company that day!

The biggest lesson for us was that we will never in a million years do business with that company if we can avoid it! The title company that dropped the ball does a LOT of business, and I had never heard a complaint about them before, so we didn't realize how disorganized they really are. The important thing about discovering a bad apple is knowing better than to continue eating once you find half a worm!