furniture left after closing day.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by Spazkat9696

Read your contract. Everyone I know has taken possession of their house and keys at closing. I've never heard about this 3 days. Typically there is a final walk through before closing to make sure there is no new damage to the house that may cause the seller to back out. That can't be done with the sellers stuff in the house.

I sold real estate for many years, and the vast majority of my customers did not actually move out of the house completely (unless that was already their plan) until the house CLOSED - there was generally a three day period at that point to allow them to move out.

As I stated before, many sellers are using the proceeds from the sale to buy their next house - often in a closing immediately following that sale. So - until the closing, they HAVE NO HOUSE to move their belongings to. Thus the three day (or two day or whatever) courtesy period.

In fact, I've had sellers request that they live in their former house for up to a month, or even MORE, in unusual circumstances, and actually RENT the house back from the new owners - because of some situation like a school year ending or a house being built that's not ready yet. And I've had buyers agree to those terms as well.

[Kwhit]

I bought a house 6 days ago,from friends,they needed time because the house they bought was being held up by the people they bought from.We had no problem with this....but.... our agent told us.....once closing is over the house and anything in it is yours. Sellers are to get everything out and at least broom swept before closing.

[bcr229]

Originally Posted by Kwhit

I bought a house 6 days ago,from friends,they needed time because the house they bought was being held up by the people they bought from.We had no problem with this....but.... our agent told us.....once closing is over the house and anything in it is yours. Sellers are to get everything out and at least broom swept before closing.

This is how it worked when I purchased property a few years ago. The seller wanted to leave some of his stuff in a storage shed for a while. Our realtor told him no way, it has to be gone when we go to closing, and anything left on the property would be ours.

FWIW this was not a residence, it was land with some outbuildings.

I would read your purchase contract and unless it explicitly states that they don't have all their stuff out by the closing date, either tell them to get a Pod or storage unit, or they will be paying you X per day in rent until their stuff is gone, and put a time limit on it.

[KathrynAragon]

The contract should CLEARLY state whether or not there is a grace period to remove personal items. As I've stated repeatedly (and I am a realtor so I do know what I'm talking about), it is NOT uncommon for a buyer to allow a seller a certain number of days to vacate the property AFTER closing, though it is certainly not required. They typical time frame is 3 days.

I am not familiar with every state's standard documents, but most states have a specific place within the sales contract that states when the buyer will take possession of the property. Contrary to (apparently) popular belief, it is NOT a given that possession is immediately upon closing/funding.

Have your realtor show you specifically what your individual sales contract says. That's what you go by, period. Not advice on a public forum - this is a legal matter and your rights and responsibilities will be clearly outlined in your contract.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by Kwhit

I bought a house 6 days ago,from friends,they needed time because the house they bought was being held up by the people they bought from.We had no problem with this....but.... our agent told us.....once closing is over the house and anything in it is yours. Sellers are to get everything out and at least broom swept before closing.

That's apparently what was in your particular contract. This is a part of real estate contracts that is determined when the offer is accepted - both parties have to agree to the timeline and sign the contract. It's not the same in each different situation.

[Wolfette13]

There is no way I would pay another month's rent or be inconvenienced in any way, shape or form because the sellers don't want to move before closing. That is BS in my opinion and you need to read your contract and ensure that they do NOT have it written in there. No one is going to cover your cost for another month's rent except for you and the seller will more than likely NOT want to pay you for those 3 days either. IF they insist on having those 3 days then do one of 2 things, tell them that is a deal breaker and find another place to purchase OR charge them $3000.00 per day storage fee. I bet that gets them out of the house before closing AND I would NOT allow them to keep their stuff in a POD on my driveway either, that is just another inconvenience for you.

This is merely what I would do but I do not play well with others sometimes, especially if what they want is going to be an inconvenience for me AFTER I have paid them a LOT of money for something.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by Wolfette13

There is no way I would pay another month's rent or be inconvenienced in any way, shape or form because the sellers don't want to move before closing. That is BS in my opinion and you need to read your contract and ensure that they do NOT have it written in there. No one is going to cover your cost for another month's rent except for you and the seller will more than likely NOT want to pay you for those 3 days either. IF they insist on having those 3 days then do one of 2 things, tell them that is a deal breaker and find another place to purchase OR charge them $3000.00 per day storage fee. I bet that gets them out of the house before closing AND I would NOT allow them to keep their stuff in a POD on my driveway either, that is just another inconvenience for you.

This is merely what I would do but I do not play well with others sometimes, especially if what they want is going to be an inconvenience for me AFTER I have paid them a LOT of money for something.

This should have been addressed (and usually is) on the initial sales contract. It will either say "possession upon closing" or "possession within three days - or whatever the deal is- of closing."

The wording differs from state to state but the meaning is the same.

Remember - karma, karma. What if you were selling your house but needed the equity to purchase your next house? In other words, had to close first before you could purchase your new house? What if something happened to the first closing and you weren't able to close on time on your new house? Where would you put your stuff? What if the first closing was delayed, or even fell through, and you had already packed your stuff up in the moving van? What if the buyer backed out completely (this does happen) or their financing fell through, or (this happened to me with a situation once) a tropical storm came through and destroyed the house you were GOING to buy so now you had no place to go? Would you be all that happy that you had packed up all your stuff but now you needed to stay in your house for a bit longer?

This is why there is OFTEN a courtesy time period built in. And guess what - I've written several sales contracts that actually allowed the SELLER to rent back the house for up to FOUR MONTHS from the buyer. In each case it was because the buyer wasn't ready to move yet, but didn't want the house to get away from them. (School year in a couple of cases, sale of the buyer's home in another case.)

What I find odd about some of the responses on this thread is that people seem OBLIVIOUS to the concept that not every seller has to move out and "hand over the keys" the minute the sale closes. This is often not the case - it's not an outlandish idea or weird practice. It's very VERY common. In fact, I'd say that probably 75 percent of the closings I've had with occupied property allowed the seller a couple of days to move out after the sale.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by Wolfette13

There is no way I would pay another month's rent or be inconvenienced in any way, shape or form because the sellers don't want to move before closing. That is BS in my opinion and you need to read your contract and ensure that they do NOT have it written in there. No one is going to cover your cost for another month's rent except for you and the seller will more than likely NOT want to pay you for those 3 days either. IF they insist on having those 3 days then do one of 2 things, tell them that is a deal breaker and find another place to purchase OR charge them $3000.00 per day storage fee. I bet that gets them out of the house before closing AND I would NOT allow them to keep their stuff in a POD on my driveway either, that is just another inconvenience for you.

This is merely what I would do but I do not play well with others sometimes, especially if what they want is going to be an inconvenience for me AFTER I have paid them a LOT of money for something.

Also,if the original sales contract stipulates a three day (or whatever) courtesy period for the seller to move out, the buyer can ASK for an amendment, but cannot FORCE an amendment, or FORCE the sellers to pay anything outside of what is in the contract now.

Anything other than abiding by the contract, or BOTH parties agreeing to an amendment would be a breach of the contract and a potential lawsuit by the seller against the buyer.

However, the good news is that usually these things can be worked out in an amenable fashion. The contract should already stipulate the terms of possession. The buyer and seller both need to adhere to that contract. If the buyer needs to close a few days earlier to avoid having to pay another month's rent, that can usually be done, IF the title company and financing company have enough notice and everything with inspections and title work and insurance, etc are done in a timely manner. The buyer would really need to pressure the realtor and title company and bank/mortgage lender to get everything together a few days earlier.

Unfortunately we are dealing with a major holiday and the typical rush at the end of a month. That is why I told the buyer at least a week ago to start pressuring the realtors and title company and bank IMMEDIATELY. They would need to close by Monday or Tuesday of this upcoming week in order to avoid paying another month's rent.

Unfortunately, if the contract says three days after closing, and that's what they've already signed, and the closing doesn't happen till later in the week, looks like they'll be stuck with paying another month's rent and there's simply not much they will be able to do about that, other than pitch a fit.