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I would care about the exterior doors, not the interior doors. I would replace the interior doors anyway. The doors that are standard for houses are cheap, and it's not much money to buy doors that are solid wood and help with noise. I can install the doors myself and have in the past.
We just closed on our house sale. A highly upgraded, 4/2 on a large lot. We had multiple offers over asking price within days of listing. We chose an offer with conventional financing and only a standard inspection contingency.
Lesson learned-I think from now on I am going to choose an offer with a home sale contingency. This way I will know it's not a first time buyer.
The buyer got very nit-picky on the inspection. We agreed to about half the repair requests. Then they changed their financing from conventional to a first time buyer program. So appraisal comes in low. This was no surprise since they offered over asking price. And then they want to renegotiate the price.
It's a strong seller's market, as evidenced by our attempt to buy a new home. I wanted to dig my heels in, cancel the contract, and relist. However, we agreed to meet in the middle and come down a few thousand.
And now the final walk through... They threatened to walk away over missing closet doors. The doors are not there in pictures or during any of their viewings, inspections, ect. There are built in organizers with drawers in the secondary bedrooms. Closet doors would prevent you from being able to open the drawers.
We closed, late, but lesson learned. No more first time buyers for me.
You were in a hot sellers market, had other offers, why didn't you move on?
Personally, I wouldn't have played their games, especially with their offer. I would have gladly moved on to one of the other offers since you had multiple. I don't blame them for trying to get it cheaper, as a buyer I may have asked too, but as a buyer, I would also know it's a hot sellers market. If I loved the house, I wouldn't be playing price games because my better offer could make it the most appealing to the seller to pick me.
Threatening to walk over the closet doors would have been the final straw for me. Eff them for playing games! At that point, you were already moved out. Were you already moved into your new house too?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmw51882
There were many things that happened during this sale that I hadn't dealt with before. The fact that we are in a hot seller's market made it that much more annoying. For example, offering over asking price, then trying to renegotiate the price because the appraisal didn't match the offer. Um, if you offer over asking price, you have essentially agreed that you are willing to pay a premium. The list price was set by fair market value. I realize this isn't because the buyer was a newbie, but a seasoned home owner, and someone who is in the process of selling their own home, isn't going to try and play those games based on a forum they read from 2010.
I agree, offering over the asking price meant they were willing to pay the premium for your house. They offered above asking because they wanted to be picked as the buyer and it worked; then they played games.
Your buyer asked you to come down in price and you did. Are you kicking yourself now?
I don't understand why people are piling on the interior door issue. If they weren't there to begin with why would a buyer suddenly expect them to appear? Clearly the house is being sold in its current condition.
What else would you all complain about? That the countertops arent the type of material you expect to see? That there's not a powder room like you would expect to have? That you would expect a bigger garage or patio?
I've seen houses sold without appliances, missing parts of walls, broken windows, unfinished floors with subfloor showing, etc. The sellers are not required to upgrade or complete or supply things that are not included in the current condition. If the missing doors bothered tyese people they needed to use it as a bargaining chip for a credit to replace them or just walk away at offer. Not at closing. Thats bratty behavior.
Have chat boards like this done more harm to sellers or buyers?
I don't think so ... at least not as harmful as real estate shows on HGTV. In my opinion that's where buyers have gotten the ideas that all houses on the market, regardless of age, must be in "new" condition with all upgrades in place and zero warts of any kind. I think that's where the word "dated" originated thus changing the concept of move-in-ready from clean and tidy to newly renovated.
I believe chat boards like this one are really helpful, more in-tune with reality than any script for the purpose of "good tv". Personal opinions shared based on experiences or thoughts are useful.
Maybe the reason they made a full-priced offer was to gain a place in line that would catch the buyer's attention. Otherwise they'd immediately be disregarded from the race altogether with even a single other bidder.
So what they've taught in this lesson, lie, bid asking price or above to bait, then switch it once the seller is hooked.
An appraisal is not as accurate market value determinate as an offer is in my view. A home price can vary by 5% of not be inaccurate at all.
The relocation policy of the company I worked for set the objective to get the seller out of his house deal as soon as possible and give him any upside that happens on a timely sale.
When you accept a new position offered by your employer that requires relocation you get an agreement to sign which sets the house value with appraisers picked by you and the relo company. If the two values are within 5%, you get the average of the two. If they are not within that margin you pick a second appraiser when his value comes in you get your equity out of the house based upon avg of the two higher values. So with equity in hand you travel to the new location and buy a home, all closing costs and incidental are covered by the company. Also if your home sells for a higher price then the one you got and goes under contract within 60 day of signing the agreement then you get the higher equity value this price warrants. While you are not living in the home, since you moved your family to the new location to do the new job all the bills are paid for by the company.
The idea is to get you out of the minutia of selling a home and on to the new job to produce. This worked well for us. This also shows there is a range of values for a home at any time that are its true market value...ie what a buyer will pay for it.
Cardinal rule.... Never sell your home to an attorney. Escrow never closes. Don't bother asking me how I know this to be true.
I know, right? I found out the builder who built one of our houses was forced to go bankrupt because he built a house for a lawyer who knitpicked him out of business.
We are in a strong seller's market, so we have all the leverage, but I think a good realtor is much more important. The buyers have an experienced realtor who is guiding the buyers through the process, and giving them good advice on how to work with us through the process. If not for their pleasant realtor, they may not have been able to buy our house. Their realtor walked them through how to navigate a hot seller's market and be reasonable with expectations.
Absolutely agree that an experienced agent is vital! We were (essentially) first-time buyers earlier this year. Our exceptionally experienced realtor (an avid poster and sage advisor here on C-D, btw) kept me from making some really boneheaded moves and managed my expectations (well, really, my EMOTIONS) in a hot seller's market. His experience was particularly helpful in sizing up issues uncovered in the inspection and navigating the negotiation for repairs with the seller.
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They threatened to walk away over missing closet doors. The doors are not there in pictures or during any of their viewings, inspections, ect. There are built in organizers with drawers in the secondary bedrooms. Closet doors would prevent you from being able to open the drawers. 
