I bought my current boat in a private sale, no broker. The seller had a lien on the boat, and he originally asked for 2 cashiers checks…one to pay off the lien (made out to the bank IIRC) and the balance made out to him.
A few weeks before we were supped to close, he emailed and said that they decided to pay off the lien early, so just make the check out to him for the full amount…so I did.
I was supposed to meet him and his wife at their bank to close the deal, get the title, etc.
When I walked in to the bank office the seller and his wife were staring at the computer with the bank manager…and no one looked happy. Seller and wife had moved out of town and the wife didn’t specify EFT to pay off the boat loan, so their new bank sent a check…which hadn’t gotten to the old bank (holding the lien on the boat). And no one could find the title either.
They really didn’t know what to do, but I didn’t feel like sitting around, so I told them to call me when they figured it out, and that I was going to go sit on my new boat.
They called an hour later with a plan…take my Cashiers check, to a local branch of my bank in town and cash it…then take the cash and pay off the boat lien at the sellers bank (no waiting period if they paid cash), and they could get a replacement title in Michigan at the DMV…
So, we all went to my bank branch, and cashed a $22,000 check…walked out with a brown paper bag of cash, drove to sellers bank and counted out the payoff for the loan…looked like a drug deal with cash all over the managers desk…seller keep the change and gave me the title and paper work for the released lien. Quite a crazy day! After all that, went back to the boat with a new lock, found a few beers in the fridge and had one before driving back home…luckily they were honest (just a little disorganized) and we all got what we wanted in the end.
Greg
