We are in the process of buying a house from a member of the US Army. One of the conditions of the sale is that the seller would give us a $3000 allowance for a new fence. This is to be paid to us at closing next week. Since they don’t have an extra $3000 lying around, they can’t give us a cashier’s check. They will have the money once we buy the house from them but I’ll have to take a personal check. My wife is kind of leery. I think she has the mentality (I don’t know where it came from) that “the army takes care of its own” and since the sellers are being relocated (from Oklahoma to Louisiana), that we’re taking a chance that we could lose out and be stuck.
From my limited googling, it looks to me that the good captain could be court-martialed for writing a bad check and I seems unlikely that she’d risk her career for $3000. This assumes, of course, that “the army doesn’t take care of their own” and won’t put up with such foolishness.
So, am I taking a risk by taking a check or is the risk less than from an average civilian?
An officer would definitely be risking her career by writing a bad check. I can’t speak for the Army, but when I was in the Navy, if one of our sailors was involved in financial hijinks (missing payments, bad checks, stuff like that) they’d be called in to the command master chief or the CO to explain how they were going to make good on their responsibilities. I can’t imagine the Army would be any different, especially if you’ve got a contract stating what’s due to you.
I’m a trusting guy, usually to a fault. So, I’d take the check. On the other hand, if it is your purchase money that will fund this, why not run in through escrow with everything else and be sure?
The US Army version of taking care of it’s own helps. In these kinds of situations that means not disparaging the reputation of the Army and entire officer corps by turning a blind eye.
An officer is literally putting their entire career in jeopardy. An average civilian doesn’t have that risk. They also won’t have an employer that takes weighing in on personal financial obligations as being a work related issue.
When the contract was written and signed a month ago, it was considered an allowance. My realtor told me that it can’t be part of the closing because that would be an enticement and those are a no-no. She said that the seller could write a check to the realty company but that after they paid me, it would come with a 1099 so it would be considered taxable income. Obviously I don’t want that.
Why the sellers wanted to do it this way, I don’t know. But I signed the contract because I (naively) assumed that it didn’t make a difference if the price came off the top or as an allowance.
Am I the only one who thinks this sounds odd as hell? The enticement bit, the 1099,all that sounds off.
The most logical thing would be a straight up sales price reduction. Of course that would cut 180 bucks off the commission the agents make.
Yeah, when I hear something like this, my mind immediately jumps to those scams where someone overpays you for something and asks for the difference in cash. And when I hear that the other party is a member of the Army, my immediate thought is “Or at least, so they say”.
There’s no reason for money to go both ways in a single transaction. This isn’t “Hey, can you make change for a $100,000 bill?”.
Just forget the servicemember angle altogether. The military doesn’t look kindly on bounced checks true, but the military isn’t generally up in anyone’s shit to the level required to know what’s going on with their home sale. Someone would have to track down this person’s CO, explain what happened, and then… hope that they happened to care enough to listen to both sides of the story and make a decision either way. At the same time, this is a civilian issue for the civilian courts, I’m not sure by what mechanism the army could “take care of its own.”
Would you accept a check from Joe Homeowner who wasn’t in the military? That’s all you need to decide.
The only thing I know for certain about this whole situation is that she is indeed a captain in the US Army and is enrolled in the Captain’s Career Course. I believe that her husband is army as well but I’m not 100% sure of it.
Because that won’t result in liquid cash at the end of the transaction.
Nar Ginley, don’t worry about 'the Army taking care of its own". If that check bounces, you can notify his/her new commander who will ensure the debt is taken care of. I’ve seen similar scenarios play out. Worse case is that it takes a little effort and follow up on your part, but you will get that $3K.
“It the check bounces you can get it taken care of” applies to any transaction ever. Don’t do it. Why should you put yourself in position for a hassle? Tear up the sale agreement and sign a new one for $3000 less.
I asked that question to a friend buying a house and had a similar situation. His response was ‘we need to replace the furnace and AC now, not in 30 years’.
Makes sense.
I would talk to [someone?] and just have a clause in the contract that states that you get a $3000 check, from the seller, at closing. Let them work out the details, but then you’ll have the cash that day and the bank will likely handle writing the check and handing it to you.
Disregard everything said about the seller being a service member and that “they will take care of their own.” Yes, if the seller is an actual service member they may, if they find out about it, if they care, eventually, they may discipline him for bringing disrepute upon the service. But they are absolutely not guaranteeing the check. You have no legal recourse through the service to collect on this.
Will the entire sale of the property be held in escrow until the check finally clears all of the banks involved? If not, you can kiss that $3000 good bye, you are not going to get it.
It is seemingly minor details like this that should tell everyone that it is a scam. It is always the minor details that involve just a little money compared to what you are getting that should indicate a scam. You have almost, almost, got the thing that you really desire if only we could take care of this other, minor, money issue.
Do you have a title and escrow company involved? That is why they exist. And why they are needed.
I used to get calls all the time from collection agencies, usually looking for a guy that has bounced on a truck payment or something, since I was always the “clearing house” for calls they did not know where to send. I have so many stories! Honestly, this is not something that the Chain of Command would interfere with - except it would be very easy to put a wage garnishment in if it gets to that point. Maybe back in the day they would, but now, not until the officer was going to court, and then it’s really just letting them know. I will add, we don’t cover for deadbeats. If something happens, I am always happy to give the address to write to - that would be one HUGE advantage, they can’t skip out on the paperwork. We will 100% know where to find them.
As an officer though, I take my reputation seriously, and so would this person, I imagine. YMMV.
I was an officer in the U.S. Navy (and my father and grandfather were both Army officers), and would never have wanted to risk getting called into my CO’s office over something stupid like a bounced check. With that said, the service member is evidently being transferred out of the area, which would make it more difficult to track them or their CO down if the check bounces.
I thought the whole point of escrow was to take care of issues like this. Every time I purchased and sold a home, a lot of money was going back and forth for partial utility payments/credits, the amount of heating oil in the tank, etc. On one occasion, the seller had promised to have the house power washed but never got around to doing it before the closing, so they offered us $250 at the closing to pay for the power washing. Our real estate attorney took care of all of this, figured out who was owed money at the end, and wrote a check out of escrow.