Homebuyers last minute demands (a vent)

11 years ago

So, it is the end of the very long road of home selling and home buying for me. Both houses close this week and we are scheduled to move in/out Thursday and Friday. But here is the latest (and this is a vent more than anything):

I guess the homebuyers were poking around the outside of our house at some point while we were at work yesterday (in 8 inches of snow - but that is beside the point) and here are the things that they "want to know what we are going to do about it" before they will sign off their loan today (scheduled in 90 minutes....they sprung us last night around 5).

1. the gate to the fence is broken ....um...yeah like it has been for the past 15 visits and is mentioned in the sellers disclosure and wasn't brought up in the inspection or appraisal process
2. the trim around the garage doesn't match...um...the bottom two inches is fresh paint that hasn't had time to fade yet because we completed the repairs to the bottom of the wood that you asked us to.

Apparently they expected us to repaint the house to match this two inches of trim and do some fence repair all in the dark and in the snow.

And their final walk through is today so I can't wait to hear what doozies they bring up for the interior of the house. I can imagine comments about "holes in the walls" where pictures used to be and other very important structural issues.

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Comments (22)

lyfia
11 years ago
My response would be we are doing nothing. The sellers disclosure has had item 1 listed the whole time and during their due diligence period this should have been mentioned. And for the second item it is too cold to paint. Painting generally should be done over a certain temperature. You'll be happy to make sure they have the paint they need.

I'm sorry you have to deal with that. It seems like I've been very lucky in our closings and not having to deal with people like that.
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brickeyee
11 years ago
"I can imagine comments about "holes in the walls" where pictures used to be"

One of the reasons you do not remove the picture hooks form the wall, just the pictures.

Sounds like you have PITA buyers.

I have only refused once and never had buyers actually walk.

Their attorney was more shocked than mine about their antics.
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kellienoelle
Original Author
11 years ago
Our response has been that we are doing nothing. They won't walk, they can't possibly!!! Right now I feel like they may be playing chicken and seeing if I will blink first.
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jakabedy
11 years ago
Might they possibly be fishing for some cash back ? I'm not saying this is an honorable pursuit in any way, but just thinking that this might be what they want. A little "grease" to make things go smoothly,
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terezosa / terriks
11 years ago
What does the contract say? I imagine that they have no standing.
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brickeyee
11 years ago
Did they perform their inspection and waive the clause?

The 'walk through' is only to verify that nothing has changed, not to look for 'new' things.
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kellienoelle
Original Author
11 years ago
I think they may have been fishing for money, but I certainly wasn't going to give them anymore since their issues weren't valid. But - they signed off on their loan (seems awfully late in the game to do that to me, not sure what that means anyway). Now they have their final walk through tomorrow afternoon right before their closing. Maybe it was a last minute freakout on their part and they have taken a little zen moment. Hopefully!
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StellaMarie
11 years ago
Ã¢ÂÂ¢Posted by jakabedy (My Page) on
Tue, Mar 26, 13 at 11:47

Might they possibly be fishing for some cash back ? I'm not saying this is an honorable pursuit in any way, but just thinking that this might be what they want. A little "grease" to make things go smoothly,

**************************************
That's what I'm thinking, too. When I sold my condo, the buyer wanted a credit at closing (post-same-day walk through; they'd waived the inspection contingency) because one of the blinds need a minor repair (I think one of the strings came unattached?). I gave in bc I didn't want to lose a buyer such a tiny thing (I was also selling in a down market and really wanted to get the place off my hands).

My friends who sold around the same time had similar experiences, many much more ridiculous than mine. We all gave in (to varying degrees), because, to us, it wasn't worth fighting over and pushing back/potentially losing a sale.
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kellienoelle
Original Author
11 years ago
Oh gosh, I hope that isn't what their plan is. They are scheduled to walk through at 3:00 and close at 4:30 tomorrow and I am rarely available by phone during that time to negotiate their demands. if they refuse to close that could set everything completely off of schedule.
What happens then? My realtor pretty much knows I am done and already thinks they are crazy so maybe she'll play interference.

Guess I can't think about all the things that could go wrong and go back to picking out a paint color for the kitchen.
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StellaMarie
11 years ago
Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!! Are you going to have an attorney at the closing? If so, they should be able to handle any of this last-minute stuff and you can just advise the other side that you will have limited availability (basically "speak now or...").

My advice would just be not to let yourself get too upset about stupid demands at the last minute and keep the big picture in mind. The requests may be dumb (I sure thought my buyer's was!), but at the end of the day it didn't cost me much and I sold my place!

Oh, and my seller on the new place wanted me to split his(outrageous!) packing and moving costs if we couldn't agree on a final (post-inspection, post-appraisal) price. LOL. That was clearly a no-go. I think people can just go a little nutty at closing time, don't worry.
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stolenidentity
11 years ago
For your question - "if they refuse to close that could set everything completely off of schedule. What happens then?"

I ditto terriks and brickeye in their answers. Look at your contract which should have the answer to this question.

If the worst thing happens and the closing does not occur, then at the very least the home buyer is going to lose a substantial amount. Right???

Good luck, if they have issue then the realtor / attorney "negotiate", you should not talk with the buyer.
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jmc01
11 years ago
We had buyers who walked away withing 72 hrs of closing and, sadly for them (not really), they ended up saying goodbye to their earnest money....and our lawyer was all over our situation until the final resolution.
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Tony2Toes
11 years ago
Typically, if the buyers refuse to close but all contingencies have expired, they have contractually "failed to perform," meaning they lose their earnest money deposit to you. Of course, this could be little consolation to you if you end up a) losing the buyer, b) losing the equity from sale of home you intended to use to buy your new house or c) find yourself paying two mortgages for months while you re-market Home No. 1.

Good luck with this.
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User
11 years ago
" if they refuse to close that could set everything completely off of schedule. "

Closing is NOT where the negotiations happen ... it's where everyone signs papers.

I doubt their agent will let them do that, BUT if it should happen, make the appropriate legal noises. Refusing to close is not like jilting a prom date, they already signed a legally binding contract to hand you money for your house.
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xamsx
11 years ago
We are supposed to close Friday on a condo, but our attorney is OOT. It will happen Monday or Tuesday I guess (mail closing for us as we live in a different state). I am sure they aren't pleased (they are moving today), but it is out of our hands.

Closings dates are always a moving target, but they are not an opportunity to negotiate. If they couldn't close due to something on the bank's end, there was a problem with the title, an attorney conflict, etc., etc. that would be one thing, but to hold things up "just because" ... yeah leave it to the realtors and the attorneys and try not to let it get to you (easier said than done, I am sure).

Best wishes!
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kellienoelle
Original Author
11 years ago
Well, they had their final walk through at 3:00, and were scheduled to close right after and I haven't heard that things have gone wrong, so I am hopeful that means that all is going smoothly!

Thanks for letting me vent. Hopefully I have nothing else ot add to this vent later.
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ncrealestateguy
11 years ago
XAMSF wrote:
"We are supposed to close Friday on a condo, but our attorney is OOT. It will happen Monday or Tuesday I guess"

I am assuming that OOT means "out of town". If that is correct, you and/or the buyers should have raised hell and demanded that the closing happen. That is not an acceptable excuse.
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xamsx
11 years ago
ncrealestateguy it is our trust attorney, so it is what it is. I don't really care, the sellers may, but an extra business day means nothing to me.
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User
11 years ago
So, we're dying to know. Did you close?
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angel411
11 years ago
Bumping up for Kellienoelle..did you close??
Hope everything went well!
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kellienoelle
Original Author
11 years ago
Sorry! I have been so busy moving into my new house (!) I haven't been on the Internet. Everything went off with absolutely no problems. The sellers of our house let us move some things into our new house early (we closed on Wednesday) and the buyers closed without a peep on Thursday after their walk through. They were to take possession at 6:00 on Friday and were lurking at about 4:30 to see if we finished early....which we did. They were nothing but gracious telling us how excited they were and happy they were with the house. So, honestly with the hiccups along the way, it went down smoothly in the end.

I appreciate all the advice and support along the way.

I couldn't be happier with my awesome new house!
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stolenidentity
11 years ago
Yay! Thanks for the update and it is always nice to get a happy and even happier ending :)
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Homebuyers last minute demands (a vent)

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Homebuyers last minute demands (a vent)

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