Nightmare Neighbor Accused of Interfering With Home Sale So They Can Buy It Cheap When It Forecloses
A couple of Pender County, North Carolina, residents are headed to court after a mother-daughter duo says that their neighbors are interfering with their ability to sell their house. Joy and Odessa Moran have sued Myra and James McDuffie for violating the terms of the right-of-first-refusal contract.
According to the Morans, the McDuffies are trying to drive away potential buyers so that the house will go into foreclosure, allowing the couple to scoop the property up at a discounted rate. The Morans are selling their home. After all, they can no longer afford the monthly mortgage payment.
For their part, the McDuffies deny any such involvement, and they have filed a counterclaim saying as much. Now, the Morans are in a race against the clock and trying to find a buyer before they lose the house. Meanwhile, the McDuffies are trying to defend their reputation and their ability to buy the Moran property before someone else does.
This is all according to the PortCityDaily, which viewed the legal paperwork after it was filed in April 2026.
The Sellers Say Their Neighbors Have Chased Potential Buyers Away
According to the outlet, the Morans say that they have been trying to sell their home since July 2025 after they missed a few mortgage payments. However, they previously entered into a right of first refusal agreement with the McDuffies.
The National Association of Realtors explains a right of first refusal agreement as a contract that grants someone else the ability to make the first offer on a property once it has gone up for sale. The terms of the agreement can vary, and some may include specific terms, like how long the agreement holder has to make an offer or an established minimum price.
In McDuffies’ case, the agreement said that the Morans were required to send a copy of the $365,000 purchase contract to their neighbors, giving them 30 days to respond with their own offer. However, the Morans say that the McDuffies violated the terms of that agreement when they failed to respond to an October 2025 offer within the timeframe.
The Neighbors Claim That They Didn’t Get Enough Information
The McDuffies responded to that claim, saying that the contract they received lacked all the information required, including “sufficient signatures of the parties.” They also went on to say that the down payment and escrow funds were also missing.
But the Morans say that wasn’t the actual problem, and instead claim that Myra McDuffie told the mother-daughter duo that she and her husband “could not afford to pay market value for the property and preferred to buy it out of foreclosure at what they expected to be a steep discount.”
The Morans also allege that the neighbors didn’t want a Hispanic family moving in next door.
The Sellers Say the Buyers Were Contacted by the Neighbors
PortCityDaily went on to say that the family who made the initial offer on the house were contacted by the McDuffies, which included an alleged in-person visit to their house, where James McDuffie was said to have told the family they should purchase a different home instead. He was also accused of saying that purchasing the Moran property “would not go well” for the family.
The real estate agent for the prospective buyers then reached out to the McDuffies to find out why they were in contact with the buyers, prompting James McDuffie to say it was just a “friendly conversation.”
The agent later spoke with Myra McDuffie, who brought up their driveway, which provides access to the Moran property. “Good luck with anybody trying to get in and out because I won’t let them cross my land,” she allegedly told the agent.
When the agent informed her that a new driveway was already in the works, Myra McDuffie allegedly threw a “tantrum” on the phone.
“She raised her voice and cried, saying something close to ‘Why, why, why do they want that house? That’s my house! That’s my house! That’s my house! Why do they want that house? Can’t they buy another one,'” the agent said in an affidavit.
The Buyers Pulled Their Offer
Unfortunately for the Morans, they say the buyers pulled their offer, citing the interference from the McDuffies as the reason why. When a second buyer got involved—albeit with an offer that was $20,000 lower than the first offer—the McDuffies once again refused to acknowledge the purchase agreement, according to the PortCityDaily.
The McDuffies said that this was because the seller’s information was missing from the contract, which the Morans said was done intentionally to avoid harassment.
According to the outlet, the conflict between the McDuffies and Morans is still ongoing. However, Judge Kent Harrell has issued a preliminary injunction while the legal drama unfolds, preventing the Moran property from being foreclosed on while the case is decided.
The PortCityDaily says that no trial date has been set as of the time of publication.
