On January 28 my wife and I went to Inglis to look at and purchase some land. We found a nice 1 acre tract for a reasonable price and went to River Coast Realty to buy it. We signed the contract and gave the sellers a full price offer and the closing was scheduled for February 19. At that time, we wrote a check for the full asking price, payable to the title company and requested a survey. A week after we signed the papers, we were informed that the seller accepted our offer and that the closing would happen as scheduled. About 3 days after the closing date, we recieved a copy of our paperwork and was told by the holding company we had to send them our portion of the closing costs and the money for the survey that we requested.
At this time, we also received a request to extent the closing date to March 10 because the seller needed a bit more time. At this point, we saw no problems with the request and gave permission for the closing date to be postponed as requested. March 10 came and went, no closing. We called River coast Realty and was informed that the seller died and closing would be delayed. We kept calling weekly for an update and were told each time we called that we needed to give it more time because it had to go through probate in Indiana. It is now june, and our patience was wearing thin. We were told every time we called the realtor's office, that we needed to wait at least one more week. On June 11, I called the title company and spoke with the president. I asked him; "When did the seller pass away?" I was told that the seller passed away on or about July 16,1995!!! This was unacceptable. I was also told at that time that the property had finally gone through probate in Indiana, but it also had to go through probate in Florida before closing could take place!!!
However, we really wanted the property, so I told the president that we didn't want our money back at this point, we would much rather have the property, so we would wait a while longer to see what would happen. I am considering filing a complaint with the Florida attorney general about this, the realtor HAD to know how long the seller had been deceased!!!
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