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. 1.       Stairs

2. 2.       They will be far away from their friend and lose their contacts with them.

3. 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?

With the pride of living over 33 years in Plano, I am proud to serve as your Professional Real Estate Consultant and guide you through the selling, buying and leasing process, help you locate a suitable site for your business, provide neighborhood demographics and schools information, and more information. Mobile: 214-457-7055 Fax: 972-596-7984 email: Bahman@TexasFiveStarRealty.com www.TexasFiveStarRealty.com   Contact us about your Real Estate Questions