Selling Spring farm NSW blocks problem with buyer BS.

Hi Guys,
Of our 5 blocks we are stuck with in Spring Farm most have now been sold off (at a modest loss, our problem and we own it, not whining).
One block registers this thursday, Agent had a buyer back in September who signed up but did not provide a holding deposit. Solicitor requested a holding deposit till contracts exchanged. Anyway this buyer stalled about the purchase and promised to sort out over several weeks etc. meantime lot had been taken off the market. Apparently the buyer was stalling till they could sell their present property to fund this block and a new build! Had been advised that they can sort out this thursday after their 10 cooling off period ends and they lock in their own sale. This is the day the block registers, we can obtain a 14 day extension with interest but the buyer is insiting on a 21 day settlement. Av Jennings / Cornish will not extend past the 14 days so we either finance it or loose our 38K deposit.
Can I demand a 14 day settlement due to the buyer mucking every other party around?. This block is currently 25-30k under the present new block release price in a better area of the estate than is currently being released.
Wish me luck, off the the solicitors tomorrow.
Stress like this I do not need.

One other block which also registers Thursday is sold, will exchange on the same day and is locked in!
Of the three other remaing blocks (these register later in Nov or Dec 16) one was sold back in May, and another sold 3 weeks ago but the buyer asked for a 10K discount due to their broker not being up to the task. That buyers conveyincing agent managed to find a better broker who appears to have gotten them over the line and advised us today all appears to be ok. The last block had two buyers wanting to purchase which makes it a matter of first in best dressed.
In the washup of this disaster of our own creation we would have been out of pocket about 39K after paying stamp duty and the solicitors fees for buying and selling. If we cannot meet the deadline to exchange for this one block not yet sold that registers this thursday then we are out of pocket about $85K, ouch!
Wish me luck Peter T.

 

Update,
Buyer who could not get their **** together for last Thursday (Yesterday)did not get back to our solicitor despite numerous requests to complete( i mean alot).
One of the partners from our convencing solicitor advised some of their clients of our problem, and found a cash buyer who exchanged today , well actually both exchanged today without a hicup!!!
WE had all our ducks in a row and had provided sufficient funds to allow stamp duty etc to go through.
All done. We have three more to exchange at registration next January (with only minor loses) so we are really keen to put this behind us and move on. I have read quite a few stories of other PC members having trouble and frankly I think we have gotten off lightly.

Ya' live and Learn!
Peter T

 

Well done Peter!

 

Hi Peter,

Good to hear you're not too much out of pocket. Without knowing the whole story, what were your key lessons here?

 

I was going to ask if you needed a buyer as I have a client wanting land out there. Good to hear its ended well.

 

Hi Beachgurl,
You can tell 'em to call the cornish office at Spring farm and speak to either Colin or Daniele and ask about lot 170 which is a level 450sqm meter block with out any easments or such.(i made a point of buying good usable blocks) either that or message me , my sister inlaw and her hubby bought 7 of these blocks but have not been anywhere near as sucessful selling any. Message me if you like and I can forward details of my inlaws, could do a deal without agents?

 

Hi Jess,
Plenty!
Owning the problem and not blaming anyone else.
Although we had examined sales history and yearly Cap Growth,a better understanding of the new housing land release markets and the cost of building would have been prudent.
We learnt that blocks sold for 250K in 2012-2013 would have growth when later blocks (such as ours at around 370-380K) were on releases in 2015. (these figures look good on paper) However trying to sell these at a modest profit for someone to buy and then spend another 300K on a house from a builder means that this is a near 700K proposition. Home/land packages were going for low to mid 600K's for the area at this time so this put us right outside the ballpark.

Cheers
Peter T

 

Hi Peter,

Is the Spring Farm blocks near those large power lines? I remembered going there a couple year back when I was looking at property to buy. I am sure Spring Farm is full of houses these days.

 

Hi Kam,
those I believe were in theLancom subdivision and releases, which have no been all sold off. The subdivision we worked on was the Cornish /AV jennings joint venture, closer to the Nepean river I think.

 

Not sure where to place this question.
For one of the blocks sold the other week the solictior has asked that we release some funds from the buyers deposit to pay for;
"
for the registration of the second Transfer for the purchaser." this is about $136.
Do we have to pay this? I may be a bit of a novice but my understanding is should't this be paid by the purchaser as part of their outgoings to buy this block of land?
would be interested in the learned masses thoughts on this.