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Many buyers will pull a No Closing Bluff at the last minute to get more money out of you.
Threaten to keep his earnest money and sue him for performance. This is where your agent should be communicating strongly with the other agent.
Be an A** and get rather pushy. The buyer has damaged you by having the house off the market during this strong summer season.
She has. Our agent told us that we have an arbitration clause so we will have to go through that process unless the buyer agrees to forfeit the earnest money.
You don't have arbitration, you have mediation, big difference. And if you chose to go that route, your house will stay off the market the entire time probably making you lose more money and marketing time. Oh, and no one has to agree to anything at mediation. All you're obligated to do is show up. If you guys can't agree, then you get to go to Big Boy court and spend more money.
To put this in a different light, we should probably put ourselves in the buyer's shoes and see what might be going on. Perhaps the buyer discovered certain things about the neighborhood that were not known (a crack house nearby, etc.) All the inspections and money had been paid out but when the buyer goes home at night he thinks he has gotten into something he would rather not follow through with.
Losing whatever money he has put into this deal is chickenfeed compared to the misery he thinks he was getting into.
Personal example. We bought a house in 2011 that looked about perfect. Well it turned out to be anything but. We will take a $20K bath on that deal. If I knew then what I know now, would I have backed out and lost my earnest money and inspection money? I think the answer is obvious.
I don't know all the circumstances here. There may be more to the story than we are privy to. I would say this, however, getting to the truth of why the buyer is backing out may never be known. The buyer clams up and takes the hit and goes on. If he concocts a story made up out of whole cloth and there is no good reason to back out then he is hanging himself out to dry in the event the seller wanted to sue his britches off. As a general rule, there is always an "out" that will in the end win out, no matter what the agent will tell him. After all he or she is looking at the commission money going down the drain. They have conflicting interests even if they are employed as a buyer's agent.
Not trying to be argumentative but wanting to give what may be driving this buyer. Assuming there is nothing being concealed or not known and the appraisal and inspections are good, it may be best to just let it go and move on. If the house is worth the money, and assuming our economy ever gets out of the ditch it should eventually sell. Might be worthwhile to delist it and relist in 60 days or so after a cooling off period.
Many buyers will pull a No Closing Bluff at the last minute to get more money out of you.
Threaten to keep his earnest money and sue him for performance. This is where your agent should be communicating strongly with the other agent.
Be an A** and get rather pushy. The buyer has damaged you by having the house off the market during this strong summer season.
Do not be a nice guy at this point.
This exactly what we did. I called my agent at 8PM and told her to go ahead and give them what they want. Its not worth the hassle to not close tomorrow over a few hundred dollars. She convinced me to stick it out as we were 100% in the right. She told the buyers agent exactly what you said about keeping his earnest money and suing him for performance. They caved about 9PM and agreed to honor the contract and close tomorrow.
Looking for advice if anyone has had this happen to them.
Situation
House was listed for 275. Buyer made offer of 270 with a no negotiation contingency. We accepted
House was inspected.
Buyer came back with list of repairs to be done. I told my agent we accepted a non negotiation offer and now he wants to negotiate? We worked out a deal where I would do the repairs I could and would reduce the house by $600 to cover the rest.
I completed the repairs 2 weeks ago and provided recipients for the materials
Buyer did not have anyone re inspect
The day before closing the buyers father comes over to do a walk through. Makes a list of all these items never discussed like sprinklers need to be adjusted, floors need refinishing, screen door is wood not metal and other BS crap. We refused.
Buyer is now saying that repairs we did were not done by licenses contractor (I was very clear that I was not using one)]
Buyer wants us to pay for a contractor to come inspect the work or they will not close.
I told our agent that we are done negotiating and expect the buyer to honer the agreement. She agreed and said we have done everything we need to do and if they do not close tomorrow they will be in default.
What does that mean for us? Do we need an attorney? Anyone been through this before? I'm really pissed and don't want to let that cloud my judgment and decisions I make right now.
Tell the buyers to burn in hell. People who pull crap like that make life difficult - there is no need to put up with nonsense like that.
I had that happen on one of our houses we were selling one time. We jumped through all the hoops and the buyer started getting weird at the end. Final straw was they said the AC wasn't cold enough. We had an AC contractor come out, inspect it, and show them it was exactly what it should be. We finally had to threaten to sue them for backing out and then they decided to close. But it was touch and go for a while.
I had "the father" get involved in one of my home sales and it was a royal PITA. They always come in and throw their weight around, acting like the buying couple are idiots and got completely snookered.
this is why I hate real estate, most of the people [buyers] in this game do not have the funds to make deals like this so every decision is "a huge" decision for them and they puss out. This is the big leagues, keep renting if you cant handle it.
This exactly what we did. I called my agent at 8PM and told her to go ahead and give them what they want. Its not worth the hassle to not close tomorrow over a few hundred dollars. She convinced me to stick it out as we were 100% in the right. She told the buyers agent exactly what you said about keeping his earnest money and suing him for performance. They caved about 9PM and agreed to honor the contract and close tomorrow.
As mentioned, Many people will pull this Bluff just to get more money at the last minute.
They know you have made plans to move out (or already have), have made other plans and try to use it to their advantage.
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