House 3: Sale Documents Signed

I went to the title company this afternoon to sign all the documents. There were several errors on the HUD - as expected. First, they had my agent's commission as 3% when it should be 1%. They also left out the $350 I am kicking back to the buyer for a stove to replace the one that was stolen. Then, they charged me $525 for a termite treatment. This was never mentioned to me and it is not in our contract. The escrow company charged me because the paperwork from the termite company said to bill the homeowner. They apparently meant the new home owner, since I did not authorize this and have never heard of the company. They also incorrectly charged me $325 for a home warranty. My counter-offer, which was accepted, says the buyer is to pay that. So altogether, there was $4,750 in errors in the HUD. It pays to go over these things closely.

The only other surprise was that the close of escrow date is the 13th. I thought it was the 8th. My concern there is that I have to hold on to the property over one more weekend. I may be a bit paranoid, but three break - ins over two months will do that to you. The new window AC unit is being installed today, so there is the potential for more theft. Hopefully, though, it will be ok.

Actually, I do have one more concern - the title agent said he had not yet received the loan docs for the buyer. They were supposed to arrive on Monday. I'm a bit uneasy about that.

Unfortunately, it looks like I will not be making much on this property. That's not great, but I do want to get rid of it and at least it looks like I won't be losing money. I'll post a detailed post mortem of the project after everything settles.

On an unrelated note, I saw Bruce Springsteen in concert twice last weekend - here in Phoenix on Saturday and in Los Angeles on Monday. Great shows!! And in L.A., we went to Mimi's Cafe for dinner before the show and on the way out, bumped into Steve Perry of Journey coming in. Meal in the sky keeps on turning...