Q: I’m ignorant of real estate law, so this may be off base. Maybe you can tell us if we’re correct to be angry. My son moved back to Virginia last year. He was preapproved for a loan, got a real estate agent and began looking at homes. Over a three-month period he looked at maybe 30 homes. He made several offers but was not successful.

The one he liked best was owned by an unmarried couple who were splitting up. According to his agent, the man accepted the offer, but the woman did not. Fast-forward about two weeks and his agent said the couple reconsidered and wanted him to resubmit his offer, which he did. The offer was accepted, a contract was signed and he paid earnest money. He also paid for a home inspection and several lender fees.

Three weeks go by. A closing date is set. His agent calls one day and says the home is going into foreclosure and there’s nothing she can do. The bank schedules a foreclosure sale, buys the home for a ridiculous price since they’re the only bidder, and now also owns the home and can sell it for even more money.

This seems, to an average consumer, like dirty dealings. At a minimum it seems unethical. Are we off base to feel as we do, or is this the way the real estate market works and the banks profit?

A: We feel your son’s pain. But sometimes the homebuying process just doesn’t work out as you might want or expect. We understand how frustrated you and your son might be at the process and how it worked out for him.

We don’t think that you should vent your frustrations on the bank. The bank didn’t do anything other than protect its interests. When a homeowner fails to make payments on their loan, the lender has to step in.

On top of that, your son got caught up in the middle of a relationship gone bad. We see this happen frequently. When people divorce (or, in this case, split up) neither spouse ends up paying the mortgage. The interactions between the spouses or partners are so negative that they’d rather lose the home than figure out how to work together to keep it. So, it’s interesting that they came back to your son and tried to sell him the home.

Apparently, the owners of the home didn’t have a good sense of what their lender was going to do once they stopped paying their mortgage. Or, they thought they could get the home sold and closed before the lender foreclosed. Unfortunately, the sellers’ timing was off and your son lost out.

It’s also interesting that your son’s real estate agent hadn’t warned him the home was in foreclosure. Your son’s agent knew the sellers were splitting up. In many, if not most, foreclosure situations, real estate agents can look up properties through their systems to see what properties are in foreclosure or pre-foreclosure.

Once a contract for the sale of the home is signed, the homebuyer usually receives a title report on the target home. If the sellers are in foreclosure, the title report will frequently pick up on the foreclosure. Did your son get this information, and if so, when? It might not have mattered if he received it too late to avoid spending money applying for his loan and inspection.

In states where the foreclosure process is expedited, it might be hard to get the information on the foreclosure unless the agent for the buyer is savvy enough to think about the issue. Then, the agent could check to see if the sellers were in a pre-foreclosure situation. We’re not saying the agent should have known, but many agents do ask if there is a divorce or separation when listing a home. Typically, you’re confirming showings with two schedules, so they need to know more than in a more standard sale.

Even with all those questions and preparations, sometimes things just don’t go right. And, buyers get stuck. Once your son found out about the foreclosure, he could have insisted that the sellers talk to their lender and request an extension of time to allow the closing to take place. More communication between all the parties (brokers, buyers and sellers) could have helped.

Here’s hoping his luck turns and he finds another home to buy.

Ilyce Glink is the CEO of Best Money Moves and Samuel J. Tamkin is a real estate attorney. Contact them through the website ThinkGlink.com.