What is your realtor suggesting you do? Did the appraiser come yesterday?

@C Marlin The appraiser did come yesterday, yes. And actually, since posting this a strange man came to the door at 7:45am. I was in the middle of teaching a virtual class so I only had time to tell him to come back later, and heard him say "We only need to walk around the property" before I ran back to the computer. I assume they were associated with the buyer, but they didn't make any appointment with us... It really makes me wonder what their angle is.

Our realtor isn't suggesting we do anything, since there's not really anything to do unless we hear something new from the buyer.

Just to flesh out the info a little more - it was a cash offer so unless something has changed, they're not using any financing. And the contingency period ended on the 17th.

I've made cash offers but during escrow obtained a mortgage, the buyer could be doing this.

There are various reasons a real estate investor may want an appraisal unrelated to house price. I have done a few hard money loans on properties and right now hard money rates are pretty good and they often want an appraisal.

I wouldn't worry about it until there is something to worry about.

The walk around outside could also be from an insurance company..

"The correct answer is: The buyer can have an appraisal at this late date if they wish, but the closing will proceed as scheduled irrespective of the results as per the purchase contract."

With all due respect, there is some distance between what your contract entitles you to get and what your attorney will get for you two years later.

If the contingency period has expired he has no valid right to renegotiate. Yet most flippers I know wouldn't think twice about renegotiating. Without a release, you can't market the property to anyone else and you can spend years chasing a flipper who is judgment proof. I would be interested in the perspective of realtors who deal with flippers, but in my experience the deal is set in stone after cash is in your bank.

I agree with bry911's last statement "...but in my experience the deal is set in stone after the cash is in your bank."

a/k/a - it's not done until its closed and funded.

Having said that, don't worry if the buyer brings in an appraiser at the last moment. Proceed as you would normally without jumping the gun on 'what if's'. There are various reasons the buyer has for getting an appraisal, many that don't involve the current contract. I know it's easier for me to say not to worry, but truly, don't worry about it. If the buyer comes back to negotiate before closing, then see what their proposal is - you can always say no.

As an appraiser, I have been called at the last minute to conduct an appraisal. Underwriters often demand that we conduct an appraisal with a very short time frame. It's not uncommon to only examine the exterior in a desktop appraisal. That term means something to me and nothing to a non-appraiser.

My guess is the appraiser knocked on your door to warn you that he was walking around your house so that you weren't scared, calling the police or going to shoot him. It was a courtesy on his part.

You don't care where or how the money comes from. You don't care what happens to the property. You only care that you get your check and are on your way.

If you are still concerned, call your agent and have them make a call to the buyer's agent. Find out what is going on.

Otherwise, plan on going to closing until told otherwise.

They may be seeking an appraisal for their own purpose in order to determine how much to invest for a flip. My experience has been that cash is not always king in real estate dealings. We just went through a contract that was supposed to be cash and they ended up not having the cash and forfeited their earnest money. Sadly the earnest money we accepted was low. It does sound a bit smarmy to me and on principle I would not take any less if they come back.

sounds as though you are dealing with the same "investor" that made an offer on my daughter's home (also in Texas). Let me go find her text and do a copy and paste of some of the pertinent info. Turns out they were making offers on multiple properties hoping to then find an actual investor to complete the deal. So sort of acting as a buyer's 'broker'.

"The contract was canceled. The investor was a jerk. They really pulled a fast one. Essentially they put offers on a whole lot of different houses not for themselves, but for potentially passing on to other investors. Then it didn’t matter how much their offer was because they had no intention of actually making that offer stick they plan to make much lower offers

Their contract allow them three days to provide the earnest money. They countered with 20,000 under their original offer. Which we declined and countered with 10,000 under the original offer. Instead of releasing us from the contract they just sat on it for three days until the contract expire which was today. So now it’s back on the market again there are three people scheduled to see it". So basically, kiddo lost about 10 days off the market from the time it was listed. Wonder if your 'investor' is related to kid's 'investor'.

Did you end up closing? I hope so.

@new-beginning: I’m confused. Were you under contract, or not? Around here, contracts are offered with earnest money, a small amount of a few thousand dollars. Often there is a deposit to be made within so many days after the contract is agreed to, which is more like $10K or 5%. If that deposit is not made, they are in breach of contract. Changing the terms of the contract is a new contract.

The way I read your comment, you should have only been off market for three days at most. If they made an signed offer and you signed it, then you’re under contract. They didn’t bring a check with that offer?

yes under contract but had three days to show up with earnest money. At the end of the three days they changed offer to $20K less than list price (original offer was $10K less than list price). Daughter offered original 'contract' of $10K off, they declined. No check came with offer. House was listed on Friday, offer received on Sunday or Monday, I think. Then they waited out the three days and didn't provide earnest money so that was most of the week, and it was only on Sunday or Monday that the house went back on the market. There are two new offers as of Wednesday. Daughter says realtor told her 'she has never seen this sort of thing before'. I don't think buyer came with an agent. It was supposed to be a 'cash offer'.

Odd things can happen but your daughters agent shouldn't have taken it off the market without the EMD (IMO). Hopefully one of these new offers will work out.

Dealing with a real estate investor has advantages and disadvantages. I don't know enough details to comment on the reasonableness of the renegotiation and I doubt anyone else here does either. You can certainly say that making an offer and then revising the offer is a sketch tactic, but even that is situational.

A few years ago I was finishing a deal for a nice home with a lot of exterior wood. The longtime owner noted in the disclosure that there was no history of wood destroying insects. When my contractor found a termite trap, he called the company whose logo was on the trap and found the house had a fairly substantial termite infestation a few years previous. I dropped the offer price significantly because of the deception. I assume that if you are lying about something there are other things you are also lying about. I am sure I was vague about why, I probably just said we found some errors in the disclosure.

I am not saying this applies to anyone here, just that we don't have all the information.

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In the end, every offer should be evaluated for its plusses and minuses. I tend to offer less money than you would otherwise get, and I also tend to be able to close as soon as I can get the title search done without any demand for repairs.

These things happen. Your agent shouldn't have taken the property off the market. It should have continued to be shown.

It used to be that something like this wouldn't have hurt a property listing/sale. With public access to MLS information, buyers can see if a property fell out of contract.

I saw a listing the other day where the agent had noted in the first line of the property description: "Buyer financing fell through. Accepting offers." The description followed.

I liked the idea. Buyers and agents were immediately informed that a contract fell through through no fault of the seller or property deficiencies. This statement puts it right out there and no further explanations would be required. A buyer would be made comfortable about requesting to see the property.

It would be optional for you to do something like this and it might be unnecessary to to do this. I'd have a conversation with my agent.