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Except he is MILKING the terms to stall for time while he shops other deals. That costs me 8K a month and leaves a stigma on the MLS because by the time he decides, it will have been 2 weeks and lots of lost exposure on the MLS.
On top of that as I've said, the inspector came up with BOGUS items. The deck is permitted, the house shows a structural remodel year with the county. I've bought and sold MANY houses, inspectors typically try to show their value by finding things wrong...even if they have to make up things like, the washer and dryer look old, could be replaced to make it nicer.
If you allow two weeks for this and he takes two weeks, that’s perfectly in bounds. You’re *perceiving* it as milking, but your contract documents allow it.
Stop taking it personally and either break the deal or deal with it. Things do take longer long disstance.
As for the repair items, that is a separate issue. Decline anything that isn’t a life and safety issue. Or the whole list. I don’t see a problem here - you have a choice, and you don’t have to offer concessions or make repairs if you don’t want to. But he is also able to walk at that point, so it’s a gamble. Still, that’s all very normal real estate negotiating and you’re not over a barrel on this.
If the contract falls through you can put it back on the market and write the next one with shorter periods. But you’re locked into what you agreed to on this one.
Not sure what you're asking, but you agreed to the terms and the bottom line is there's nothing you can do. Is that the question? The inspection stuff is different. You either agree to it or you don't. If you don't, then play hardball and maybe he drops the deal sooner rather than later.
$8K a month in housing costs, if you can afford that stop complaining about a couple of weeks. If you can't afford the investor probably knows and is putting the screws to you. That's why he's an investor.
Soooo....in your infinite wisdom, I should foot an 8K a month expense to give the buyer the advantage as he ties up the house shopping for a better deal... Moderator cut: personal attacks
Soooo....in your infinite wisdom, I should foot an 8K a month expense to give the buyer the advantage as he ties up the house shopping for a better deal...
How do you know he is shopping for a better deal? Did he tell you that?
We just bought a house (and land, it’s been an expensive month) and dealt with this with the seller. We had to schedule the inspection at the very end of the inspection period because our child was in the hospital for surgery and had a bunch of appointments and diagnostics leading up to that with him and managing work and our other kids - we literally could not get in and walk the property and do inspection prior to the day we scheduled. Then we get an email from our agent saying that the seller is worried we are shaky and it might fall through, etc etc, because we asked for a twelve hour extension to get a copy of the report back to review. It was such needless drama given that not a single contract term was violated and the delays had absolutely NOTHING to do with the property. He could have simply declined the extension (which was a courtesy for getting physical copies, we had already submitted our response about the repair items and wanted to get it on paper and not just verbal)
The buyer isn’t at your beck and call. They have lives and schedules and commitments. I had to actually drive an hour and a half from the hospital, leaving my baby there one day post procedure, to go to the property. Having the seller assume our intentions and start trying to pressure our agent or obtain another potential buyer when we were completely within our legal bounds and trying to make it work to fit HIS stupid travel schedule for a vacation was more than a little galling. And we sent him a repair list that was about 1/5 of what was actually going on with the property - including servicing the furnace and checking why the AC wasn’t operational. Thankfully we sent him the entire inspection report and he (wisely) did the items we requested with no attitude, since we could have held up the deal for a great deal more time and treasure if we had wanted to.
My point is not to garner sympathy or say my situation is exactly like yours - but we were buying this home for a full renovation and short occupancy (not a flip, but I could see someone thinking it was), and needed every last day of the six week closing period we had scheduled, including all the additional inspection and walkthrough time.
Please think the best of the people you are working with. Be wise and cautious, but don’t assume motivations. Most people aren’t jerks trying to make your life difficult, but everyone in real estate wants the very best deal for themselves. That’s exactly what negotiations are about and it isn’t personal, it isn’t out of the ordinary, and time related issues aren’t automatically someone trying to undercut you.
As I noted in my post, they are milking the inspection period...That means there is a set time limit, but they are waiting until the last minute for every step. Inspection. Inspection response. Response to my inspection response, etc....Buyers do this when they are shopping other deals. Doing so is at no cost to them but IS at an 8K cost to me per month.
Really, most don’t. The communications just take time, especially remotely.
You are not following the point being made by several folks here. Yes, we understand it sucks for you but what you call "milking" the inspection period, everyone else would regard as using the time given by you to the buyer to make a decision or act on the information that came from the inspection. It all boils down to your contract language. Our contracts here have language that deals with what happens if the seller disagrees with the inspection results. Maybe yours does, too?
You've been through the buy/sell experience before, apparently. You probably already know and understand that the contract controls most of what happens and who can do what and when. For the times when a situation is not spelled out explicitly, you turn to a real estate attorney. Maybe it's time now given the money that is at risk. If nothing else, you'll feel better that you've done all that you could.
He is an out of state investor who had his realtor come look at the place the first day, send video, etc. They were adamant to be mutual/under contract that night so that it would be marked pending...
Now they seem to be milking the inspection period. Inspector came back with a lot of subjective opinions, such as the deck MIGHT not be permitted, the washer and dryer work but look old and will likely need to be replaced/are due for replacement, etc.
Now the guy wants to come and look at the place in person....it's been nearly TWO weeks. My house has been marked pending and NO ONE comes to look at a house once it's marked pending. I had it out with their agent last night, pushing to get them to make a decision. Although they came up with $4,500 in bogus repairs (washer and dryer work but are old, deck may not be permitted, gutters need cleaning, all of $4,500!!!) I offered to fix some legitimate issues like the cleaning of the gutters, and give $2,700 in concessions toward closing costs. They still would not make a decision, wanting to call the same inspector that said hey, the garage doors work but might need maintenance, the deck MIGHT be un-permitted (it's not).
Merely cancelling the contract and relisting guarantees I lose the deal at this point, but how can I get them to make a decision or get off the pot so I don't waster another day on this clown? It sure seems like he wanted to get it under contract quick to keep it off the market but is taking his sweet time to get the deal done.
Watch out! We had a gamer screw us over with stalling tactics. From the time of offer to the time we let it expire (refused his request to extend the contract period) took two months. In that time, all viewings came to a stop. I had a bad feeling early on, but as the weeks went by, certain actions of his confirmed my suspicions. Even though the whole deal wasted precious time and cost us, I am very happy that someone else (who acted in straightforward, normal manner) bought our house instead. Makes better neighbors for our good ones!
I had a buyer..waited till the last minute..sent his expert over...came up with a list..said 1500...I said 750..take it or....we closed. So he got an extra 400 or so. But, when he made the offer, it was all suppose to be quick close, etc..and that was one reason they got the price they did.
I let my agent do the talking.
For one, buying a used house doesn't mean they get new appliances, so throw that one out.
For the deck, just go down to your Code office (or whatever it's called there) and find the permits. If it is unpermitted you can probably file for an after the fact approval, although that will add time.
You have an "investor" looking at the house so he's either going to rent it out or flip it. Whatever he can do to make you absorb costs at the front end (new washer and dryer) adds to his back end.
Why do this? If this is a cash paying investor, why? Without knowing what kind of price this buyer is paying why would you suggest this?
Public records already show the house had a MIL apartment added a few years ago. It's permitted, this is purely how inspectors try to make themselves seem valuable, by making up bogus POSSIBLE defects to justify their $450 inspection fee for 3 hours of work. It takes a 2 week training course to become an inspector....
No, not all of us investors do this. I would like to know if this is an investor buying this for a really good low price. If it is I would also be irked if I were the seller.
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