Question - Selling Home - Page 5

ID2 · ‎06-25-2012

When selling a house its not over till its over. I just closed on our old house June 5th. When my house was listed we had a buyer within 2 weeks. He was pre-approved by his bank. Well, come to find out he really didn't have any money. (so why get pre-approved???). That deal fell through and we had to put our house back on the market. Another month later we found our buyers. And this time it worked! We were nervous about our home inspection but happily our house passed with flying colors. I didn't breathe a sigh of relief until we walked out after the closing. It only took us 50 days to sell our house but it seems like it took forever! The house we're in now will be our last house so that was the last time selling a house! It was such a stressful time but we did it! Good luck to the OP. I feel for you.

"Pure Michigan"

WSfan · ‎03-09-2010

@surfk wrote:
@qvcfreak wrote:
I had my house on the market for 3 months with a really bad Realtor, took it off and waited a month for a couple that really wanted it but couldn't come up with full down payment.

I put it back on the market with a different Realtor on 7/18/15 and what a difference. Had our first showing on the 24th and they put an offer in, we countered $2000 more and they accepted. I was told by Realtor, it will take 10 days to reprocess her credit in case of any changes and to get house inspected before we close on 7/31.

My question is, once those two things pass (hopefully without any issues), my home is sold, right?
Its on its way. Its moving in the right direction. Its moving, at least.

But as someone who has bought and sold a lot of houses in my lifetime, it ain't closed till its closed.

Its what makes moving and DEATH the top two most stressful experiences in a person's life. Well, one's own move...and someone else's death (to be exact). lol

Get prepared to close since its such a quick closing. That's really quick. Which could be a good sign if it came from the buyer's side to do that. Means they NEED to get into a house or don't want to waste time.

HOWEVER. the home inspection is extremely important and often a game changer. If they find anything not to their liking, they can either pull out or demand you make the fixes. Generally, people will look for a credit at closing - especially when its such a quick closing AND if the fixes aren't ridiculously expensive or show real structural problems.

It all sounds normal at this point. So PLAN to get ready to move...quick. Because everything could move that quick suddenly.

But just beware of the buyer using the home inspection to try to leverage a better price at the LAST MOMENT.

Sometimes (not always) a buyer who requests a super quick closing and home inspection does so knowing or hoping that the inspection won't be perfect. That gives them a leg up at the eleventh hour to get you to agree to reduce the price suddenly or give them a big credit at closing.

And sometimes savvy buyers make it a quick closing date - so, along with the home inspection angle - they're not wasting THEIR time should they need to pull out completely and continue their own home search.

So, brace for what happens with this home inspection - and HOW exactly the buyer might use the info.

Its why I always - always - pay for my own home inspections PRIOR to putting my home on the market. I then know what a buyer's home inspector will or might find. I then have insight into whats real or what's exaggerated. I also can correct or fix anything that needs addressing long before even listing the house. You might have to disclose the fixes but the buyer can't then go using that to talk down your price (quite so easily). Its worth the couple of hundred bucks prior to selling. Because buyers exaggerate the credits they want or the discount they want usually. A $1500 carpeting credit suddenly becomes - to the buyers - a $10,000 credit request (because really the buyer wants to put in hardwood floors).

So the next few days are extremely important for you to be ready to have a comeback for whatever the buyers might have to say post-inspection.

Our lawyer put into the contract, after the last price negotiation, that no other credits or repairs would be made, and the buyer signed it. The buyer could not then come to the closing and demand more credits. Don't know how anyone would sell a house without legal representation. Came upon some glitches, so for us, it was well worth the money.

novamc1 · ‎07-02-2015

Lots of crummy stuff can happen between contract signing and settlement. I've had to get a number of my clients to hire a real estate attorney to make the deal go through to the finish line. Lots of crummy and misguided people are out there to cause trouble.

Really loved that seller who accepted the buyer's contract and suddenly got a "better offer" from a neighbor for his house, and had his agent try every trick in the book to get us to cancel a perfectly valid contract It took a couple of lawyers to convince him that the consequences of getting sued for breach of contract weren't worth any extra money he might get by selling to someone else.

. I had one of my sellers confiscate the purchasers' earnest money deposit when the man and woman started having relationship problems and wanted to back out of the deal. It was two weeks before the closing date. I said no way would my sellers make allowances for a domestic dispute at that late date, and I wasn't very nice to their broker when he called and suggested we were being "mean" to the couple, whom he referred to as "kids." Excuse me, but those "kids" were in their 30's and I had already been informed earlier that they had owned and sold homes in the past, so they weren't naive about the process they were getting themselves into.

Never a dull moment in real estate, so it's pretty safe to assume nothing. Lots of people do assume the seller should foot the bill for inspections and other items, and lots of people place no value on contractual obligations until somebody threatens to sue them. It's a shame it should have to be that way when buying a home should be an exciting and happy experience.

Hooty · ‎03-09-2010

I wish you the best of luck!

We had a horrible scare when we sold our home in No. Va. when my DH was retiring from the Pentagon, on the night (and I mean late at night) before closing the next afternoon, my DH got a call from our realtor that something had come up on the credit on the person buying our house! I had already moved to our present location, but things worked out the next day, and we closed! I would not wish that on anyone, and I hope it doesn't happen to you!

ETA: I wouldn't celebrate till I had the signed papers in my hand from the buyer!

MaggieMack · ‎10-01-2014

@qvcfreak,

I sold my acreage two years ago, and it took me a while to go through everything in the house and the three large outbuildings. I did two things that really helped organize for the sale: 1) I ordered a large POD container that was dropped off and I could begin filling immediately with stuff I knew I didn't have to have available for a couple of months and they would then move the pod to my new house. 2) I ordered a large roll-off dumpster, a 30-yard I think, and had them leave that, too. Over the course of three months, I had it emptied four times. I also "hired" a couple of young men help with the large and/or dirty stuff. Bought a house, had an auction, sold my house, and moved without a hitch all in three months. It WILL be a lot more work than you can imagine. Good luck!

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. - Aesop

qvcfreak · ‎03-10-2010

Update - The Inspection went though fine, I was really nervous and I went this morning to sign and proceed forward. We are closing on August 31st and I started packing already. It's a bit overwhelming but I know everything will work out.

Goldenmoher · ‎12-17-2012

Congrats on (nearly) selling your home! I sold mine in April, it was on the market for one month and I sold it and bought my present home the same day. I hope you enjoy your new home. Just take your time getting settled.

qvcfreak · ‎03-10-2010

Thank you, I'm moving in with my cousin and will start looking in September. I hope I'm in my new home by October. I want to take my time since this will be my forever home. I want to check out the neighborhood and make sure everything is good and not have any regrets.

I can't believe how much clothes I have, I took out all my winter clothes to pack and Wow, I knew I had a coat thing but I have way too many.

Praying everything continues to go smoothly....

esmeraldagooch · ‎03-10-2010

Signing closing papers on ours today. Movers come to pack tomorow. We had bad buyers in the past so nothing is moved until I have the check in hand. If they don't come though and you have moved everything out, your house insurance is in jeopardy.

qvcfreak · ‎03-10-2010

I hope she doesn't back out and things continue to move forward, I've packed a lot, everything is off the walls and all the drawers are empty. Since my son took all the furniture from the 3rd bedroom, we are stacking all the boxes there until we start moving them to storage. I'm so tired and we have so much left to do but we lived here 21 years and we did accumulate a lot. Time to downsize, I gave a lot of furniture away and took a lot of clothes, shoes and misc. items to Mujeres Unidas and Salvation Army. Looking forward to start looking for our new home. I can't wait.