“Lots of Rain Can Cause All Kinds of Issues”

I was doing a mortgage on a second home in Maine. The property has a house on 58 acres, three large fields and was bound by a brook. The day of the closing the buyers wanted to do a final walk through, which they did. One of the fields flooded in a small area as it was close to a brook, but nowhere near the home that was at a much higher elevation.

The listing and selling agent were both at the walk-through at the time and the buyers freaked out and said they weren’t closing. The seller was notified of the problem and then told Realtors that this occurred from time to time when the brook overflowed and it never was any kind of problem. This didn’t assure the buyers at all.

I spoke to the buyers and they were going to look for another property. They felt they were deceived and that this issue should have been disclosed to them. It was very clear that the buyers were not going forward with the transaction no matter what.

It was clear that the seller was aware of the flooding happening from time to time and should have disclosed the information in order to avoid exactly this kind of occurrence.