I really hope I'm misunderstanding this...

So I have a client I've been working with for about a month. We found a great house but it's a short sale, and I really hate short sales. But it's a great house and a good deal and according to the listing agent it only involves one bank. Which normally would be great. But the one bank in this situation is Tank of Tabearica, and we all know what that means: big, fat pain in the arse and probably won't work out. But my client really likes the house so we put in a cash offer at ninety percent of the asking price. Well, the owners immediately accept the offer, as they almost always do, with only two minor changes regarding the title company and the earnest money. Then the whole signed thing gets sent to the negotiator for the bank.

Three weeks later we get a response, the bank has countered for almost asking price. Which we kind of knew they would do. We countered back, coming up almost to their counter price, but no deal. They won't budge. Now, my client is a good guy and he says "well we tried, go ahead and accept their counter because I still want the house". Good so far.

I email the listing agent to let her know we'll take it and to request from her the written counter offer so I can get signatures from the buyer. That was Monday morning. Last night, around 10:20, approximately thirty seven hours later, I got an email from the listing agent with the counter offer attached. But it was the wrong counter offer, it was the one originally sent to us from the owners at the beginning of the process. So I email her back immediately to let her know that what she sent is not what we need to sign and point out that the new price should be part of the addendum.

Twenty one hours later, I finally get a response to my email. The only thing the email says is "hope this will work" and there's an attachment. I check the attachment and now she's re-worded the terms of the original counter offer and added the new price. So far, so good. But underneath that is a line that says "Buyer to pay all closing costs except for seller's share of prorated property taxes as provided by title." Seriously? Do they really expect the buyer to pay all of the seller's closing costs? Including both sides of the commission? Because that's how it reads and I guarantee that if my buyer signs it, they'll hold him to it.

Needless to say, my response back was "No, actually this won't work. Do the sellers/bank really expect the buyer to pay commissions? Please clarify." Because if they are...seriously, what the hell?