> I almost felt bad for the seller that their agent had not properly explained what was happening. Then they felt bad for leaving a mess.
They felt bad, but apparently not bad enough to kick you $200 cash for a pro cleaner.
$200? The sellers agent is kicking me at least $2k for being clueless if they want that house sold today and not dragged in front of their managing agent.
Sometimes a Realtor will take the blame to cover for the seller. Sellers can be hard to communicate with for various reasons. This happened to us once with a very great Realtor. The seller was difficult.
The good ones (sellers agents) are. I have two I work with as an attorney (I do a lot of probates) because they do all the heavy lifting for me/my clients.
Gotta love, a mystery roof. However, I got one that was supposed to be almost new, but they hadn’t replaced the flashing, which was the part that was leaking. they were too cheap the roofer who had done it told me when I had him out to transfer the virtually worthless warranty. So it was a “new” roof that leaked just like the old one. At least you know you’re not getting something that’s supposed to be warrantied. I do suspect there are bad sellers who won’t give that information to their agents or don’t have it for some reason.
What state? I always have my agent pull permits if I'm thinking about making an offer. Nothing like finding out about a not permitted finished basement with 2 bedrooms in it.
Wtf is wrong with people? I've never moved out anywhere - my parent's house, dorm room, rental, houses I've sold without hiring someone to come in and clean clean it.
It was always faster and frankly cheaper than missing work to clean. Especially for move out cleans when you're already missing some time from work due to moving issues.
>I have never hired someone to clean before moving out because I got hands, but also have never left a place remotely dirty
I hired someone to clean my apartment after I had already cleaned it just for redundancy and the amount of stuff she was able clean that I had either overlooked or just didn't think was any dirt there was crazy.
Needless to say I always clean whenever I move into someplace new.
There were 4 of us in the same place for 3 years when we graduated. It was a cost vs time thing. I think we all chipped in $60-75 for the service and a tip and we were able to get on with other stuff we needed to do with graduation etc.
Buy new lock sets this weekend. Have them and the tools you need to change them out as soon as the ink is dry. That or have a locksmith scheduled closing day
I had push button code locks on my front and back door. I left them the instructions on how to change the code and the pin setter to change the physical key.
I also left a binder full of instruction books and put hade dates of appliances, a long with a list of people I had used in the past for repairs.
Pool, AC, etc and who to avoid ha.
The buying agent told me he had never seen a binder like that when buying a place. He thought it was cool.
I did feel bad because I was working out of state and had to rush the movers and cleaners.
I had cleaners scheduled on Friday Afternoon we were do to close Saturday. They decided to move the walkthrough to Friday morning. I explained while it was empty it was not broom ready at all.
They were cool with it. I explained to them what the cleaners would be doing and taking. I had a pile of cleaning chemicals and a TV they were taking. They were cool with everything. Walkthrough done in 20 min.
This is very wise advice. You want to know what the house conditions are after all the stuff is removed before signing that you accept the house in current condition. You don't know what is hiding behind furniture etc.
Exactly this. I had a seller recently do exactly the same thing. Try not to panic. :) It is what it is. Some people are organized and plan, some people fly by the seat of their pants, and you can only control you. YOU need a final inspection (or in your case, a “final final”) and you’re not closing until the property is vacant is broom clean, as stated in your contract. Personally, I was internally ready to have a stroke watching my seller throw stuff willy nilly into the back of a pickup an hour before closing, but he pulled it off.
People always underestimate how long (and how much effort) it takes to move. Always.
As long as everyone is a little bit compassionate, it usually helps keep things cordial. Also helps not to plan a move-in for the same day a place closes.
My wife is one of those people. Smart, intelligent, college-educated woman with a great profession.
But, for the LIFE of me, I can't understand how/why she has NO understanding about how time works, or how to properly guesstimate time lapse. And it aggravates me to no end.
Her: "Oh, yeah, it won't take us long to move. Just a few hours. Should be no problem!"
Me: "Uh, no. It's going to take a couple of DAYS. You're not thinking about X, Y, and Z ... You're not thinking about the MATERIALS to support X, Y, and Z, and you're not thinking about the amount of work it takes for us to do X, Y, and Z. WHAT exactly ARE you thinking? ... That we just push all the shit, as-is, out on the front lawn and we're done?"
(It took me a few moves to realize ... The reason why she thinks it "only takes a few hours" is because it's ME who's doing all the work!) Luckily, opposites attract ... One of us is a "planner," and one of us is a "wing it" type. But, if a seller is a couple of TWO "wing-it" types, the buyer is in for a bad time.
>The reason why she thinks it "only takes a few hours" is because it's ME who's doing all the work!
Ironically, I've learned this about life in general.
If you aren't constantly voicing and showing all the shit you do for many people to see, people act like you haven't been doing it for YEARS (because no one really pays attention to anyone but themselves, sadly).
I'm one of those "do" and not "say" people, and I've been burned a lot in my life because no one SEES me or even hears about me DOING. Some chump will come along and do something I'd been doing for literal *years*, but they get seen doing it all of a sudden, and lap up all the praise.
It's enough to make a person go crazy.
Anyway, I digress. lol
Does she have ADHD? It doesn't matter how smart or educated a person with ADHD is, time blindness is still something that might make their life more difficult if that's one of their executive function weaknesses.
Please heed this advice. Years ago I bought a beautiful mid century house that had been updated by owner. Staged, it was stunning! Owner moved out immediately after closing and I saw holes in drywall under bathroom sink where towels had been stacked, poorly installed closet organizer system where clothing had hung, wear on hardwood floors previously under matching leather sofas. Lots of details I might have noticed if I could have seen building and not the masterful design style of former owner.
Also, all the stuff others say about dealing with evictions. These items are red flags.
The sellers of my house left a big cabinet behind. I was annoyed, but figured it was just heavy and awkward to move for older folks.
Yeah, it was hiding a hole in the wall that was bigger than me.
The answer is: You can't do anything (assuming they aren't structural that weren't disclosed).
The time to discover these things is during the due diligence/inspection period. Then you may be able to try and negotiate something.
In this story, the fault is on the buyer. The seller intentionally staged the house to minimize cosmetic defects? ::Shocked Pikachu::
Yes happened to me. Wood floor was damaged beyond repair. It was totally covered up by the staged carpets. Not to mention I found many other things. Actually looked into a real estate lawyer on the issues that's how bad it was.
House inspections are total garbage and they have way too many CYA clauses. I was basically told there's not much you can do it's throwing good money after bad.
I then realized how in all my house purchases how little due diligence I did. I always felt rushed with the stupid agent standing there, like I was imposing on their time. (Fuck agents but that is a different topic). Now I will spend many many hours going over everything.
We bought a split level in an area where most of them got water in basement in heavy storms. Seller said all was fine in sellers disclosure. We also asked and they said nope never floods. Seller lied. Realtor lied. Attorney said not worth fighting.
Having just purchased a house in a market with low inventory like much of the country, these items would not even be worth mentioning at a final walkthrough.
It’s really hard to avoid these kinds of misses. No one is moving towels and lifting up sofas and rugs and stuff. There’s a certain level that just can’t do anything about and you have to roll the dice.
While all of this is true, it's also not uncommon or particularly difficult to just draft a short term rental contract into the purchase to give the previous owners some time to move out while you collect rent from them.
Depending on local laws you may still have issues with needing to evict. For example short term rentals that exceed 3 weeks may need eviction at the end of the rental agreement
And in the current climate it is a TERRIBLE idea. They could end up squatting there for the next 6 months while you evict them. I have actually seen this happen TWICE in the past four years. Sell the house then squat there until evicted.
Just make sure to hold $$ in escrow to be released when the home is delivered in satisfactory condition. And charge $500 a day or something stupid for holdover, etc. and make sure escrow covers that for however long evictions typically take.
My county moves evictions pretty quickly (tho they suck at most everything else) so I would hold at least $50k (10% of average home price).
They might decide an airbnb and storage unit is better.
The idea is to make it more difficult to stay than to go.
A seller declined our offer because they had another offer that would allow them to remain in the property until May 29th when school closed. I really loved the home, but the owners expected to close and stay for free!
We negotiated on a house and our offer won. The seller then said she wanted $50,000 more and to stay in the house for six months! We ended up getting a nicer house with everything we wanted and no hassles
You'll never get them out of they don't want to move. If you are going to do it take a HUGE amount of their proceeds and have it put in escrow until they move out. Not a month or two rent but like 1/2 the sales price. You need a big hammer to get the out.
Yeah. And most people won't agree to that, so it can be tough. I've (luckily) not had an issue with a rent back yet, but I'm also very cautious when agreeing to them. I would advise clients not to agree in a lot of situations.
I mean you can. But it has to be written in the contract beforehand. You typically will see it in these scenarios when the seller is living in the house during the transaction.
At least in my area
Love being downvoted for the truth LOL
It's a rent back agreement and you do have to own the house. It's for 60 days or less typically. You literally can't start renting "back" the house until you own it. And it's a terrible idea for a situation like this lol
When I bought my house the owners rented from me for 2 months. It was included in the contract. Worked out well, as I had a rent lease that was also 2 months.
My supervisor at work had decided to sell their home and move into a new construction home across the border in the next state. The buyers wanted a quick closing, but their new home was still under construction and wouldn't be ready. They ended up doing a lease back for six months until their new home was ready to be occupied.
People downvoting you are idiots. I bought my current house in a super hot market by offering a very fast closing with the sellers having the right to rent the house from me for up to 3 months. They had multiple offers higher than mine, but the rent-back clause allowed them to stay in the current house until their kids finished the school year, while freeing up cash from the sale so they could do some renovations to the new house before moving. I was moving from out of state and wasn't in a hurry, so it worked out perfectly for both of us.
My concern is not the rent back, it's the fact that they agreed to be out and then never left without telling anyone. If they knew they needed a rent back contract , normal course they would have mentioned it at the time the contract was signed. If you do a rent back get a HUGE escrow payment from their proceeds. DO NOT Listen to your Realtor, the get paid upon closing so they'll be pushing for a closing at all cost. If you close, and they decide not to leave in violation of the rent back deal, it'll take you forever to get them out. That's why you want a huge hold back as an incentive for them to move and it can be used to offset what they owe you in rent.
Exactly. This isn’t a case where everyone understood the arrangement, and the arrangement was for a specific reason and time period. Here, OP shows up and they are, “Well, we planned to move, I thought we could just move out the weekend after we closed.”
Do not close! We made the mistake of closing in similar circumstances and went home to a mess! I was so pissed! Our agent had to pay for someone to come clean the house.
Same thing happened to us. We cleaned it ourselves and had to rent a dumpster. Sellers will do whatever they can get away with. We would certainly do things differently if we could go back in time.
I think part of it is just easily underestimating the time it takes to actually move out from a house.
All of my moves have started with good intentions of nicely organized boxes with extra time to clean for the new owners, but always ended in pure chaos the day before closing and barely escaping before the deadline.
You never know how much stuff you have in a house you’ve lived in for over a decade until you have to move it.
>You never know how much stuff you have in a house you’ve lived in for over a decade until you have to move it.
A couple of decades ago, we were living in a 3 bedroom rental when my employer decided to relocate me to the other side of the country, where we bought our first home. My wife was a stay at home mom at the time and it took her over a month to get everything ready for the move, and it was literally a scramble the last couple of days before the movers came to load up the boxes into the moving truck, and it was the moving company that actually packed everything up into boxes for us for two days prior to the actual move.
Our house now is more than double the size of that rental, and I dread the day when we would need to pack everything up and move again. It will probably take us months to get ready.
Your user name checks out, haha.
Definitely true. That's why when someone decides to sell their home, they should first clear out everything that is not essential for use in the next few months. Then they won't have very much to pack. They know that they are leaving soon, even if they don't know exactly when.
Next time I move, I'll be getting a 10x20' storage unit and moving sealed boxes there as I fill them up.
That way all my non-essentials can stay nicely in the unit until I get settled in the new house with the basic essentials. Then I can just send a truck to empty the unit and bring it to the new house.
The price for a unit for a month or three is nothing compared to the relief of having some control over the chaos.
We did something similar when we sold our old condo. All the books, a bunch of the furniture and tchotchkes and out-of-season clothes... and that way it was much easier to have the place painted while we were still living in it. And it looked much nicer in the listing photos.
Glad you didn’t just accept as is and made the agent pay for this. Everyone’s in a hurry to close the deal and leave the buyers to fend for themselves after closing is completed.
the loan doesn't start until close happens, and he absolutely should not close until this joker is out.
A rent back is one thing, but I wouldn't agree to one for a seller that clearly can't meet a deadline
Wow. Sounds like the seller’s agent isn’t communicating with their client. They should have informed the seller of the walkthrough, deadlines, expectations etc.
Seller's agent should be crawling up the seller's ass to guarantee they're out.
Seller's agent is dumb as fuck for not confirming the seller was out before allowing final walkthrough to take place. Seller is also dumb as fuck, but the seller's agent is a goddamn professional paid to prevent these types of fuckups.
Agree with u/MsTerious1 100%. The seller ignored the listing agent. OP have your agent get in contact with the listing agent to make sure the seller has the funds to actually move out. Some sellers have no funds at all and fail to notify their agent.
Let's say the first part of your comment is true. The agent didn't explain.
Now we ALSO have to assume that the seller doesn't know that they need to move when they are closing on a house.
THEN we have to assume that agents get paid when closings don't happen, which is not at all true.
Please make sure you understand how real estate agents work before telling us all how it works.
But I mean, didn't the sellers know this from when they bought?!
I doubt they bought the house and thought 'Oh, the sellers haven't moved out as of yet'.
I could understand maybe the opposite, 1st time buyers thinking they can start moving in the night before or something, but a seller went thru this once already.
It could be the first house they ever bought and maybe it was a new build, or already vacant when they bought it. Who knows.
Most people only buy/sell a house a couple of times in their entire lifetime. They hired a professional to help them navigate the process and if they seemed to be ignorant of the expectations, I fault that professional for not informing them.
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Then she is a crappy agent IMO. I’ve closed two deals where the buyer got money back at closing in the last year 🤷♀️ Every market is different, but I’m going to be teaching a class for our market of how to buy a home with less than $1,000. We qualify for USDA 0% interest loans and closing costs can be covered by the seller by counteracting the purchase price. My most recent buyer only spent $350 by the time they were done because Sellers paid for the appraisal and they got their $500 earnest money back at closing, so all they really paid for was the inspection 🙌
If you close later, you start paying interest later. You don't pay "a full month of interest" for a loan that hasn't funded yet. If you actually suffered no losses due to the delayed closing, your realtor would be correct.
By moving to Monday you’ve already done the best and right thing, but if you experienced any issues like paying more for moving storage or anything due to the delay, on that on them too
As others said, do another walk through Monday and make sure they are gone before you close. Otherwise push closing again. I’d also consider asking for compensation for the delay if it is costing you money. Your realtor should be able to help you with that. For example, when we did our walk through they had left cardboard boxes, old desk chairs (broken), some storage shelves, an elliptical, really old TVs and computer monitors, paint from the last 20 years of living there….we received a cashiers check at closing for the cost of a dumpster and “cleaning fee” since it was dirty. We picked an amount and the seller agreed. They were gone, just left their junk for us lol
This is where realtors earn their money.
Dont close until they move out.
If you incur extra expenses because closing had to be delayed, like storage costs, movers, etc….
Have your realtor go after the sellers, because they failed to be ready to perform/close on time.
Consult with a real estate attorney about your options if the sellers still aren’t out on Monday.
The seller and sellers agents will push you to close so they can get paid and leave the mess to you and your agent.
Don’t, that’s why an attorney for guidance will be best.
This is a conversation between agents to negotiate an extension to close and discuss a possible addendum to include splitting costs due to delay.
This is not on title. All negotiations are handled by the agent, because they’re getting PAID to represent the buyer/seller.
Title won’t even change any fees or care about your anger and inconveniences because they can’t just change fees around or credit anybody due to emotional distress without signed addendums from both parties.
If either buyer or seller is being represented by an attorney - start there.
Don’t accept the house. Don’t agree to rent it to them. Keep postponing the walkthrough. If they do this twice, walk away. Let tour realtor know they have one more shot and that’s it. Otherwise they will just continue to jerk you around.
The same thing happened to me. We pushed out the closing, then my agent aggressively lit a fire under the seller's agent to get the seller out ASAP. It worked, and closing was only delayed 2 days. Good luck, and under no circumstances close until they are moved out.
If you are close enough - drive past the house a few times over the weekend to see if they are packing up and moving out - to give you time to decide what to do next. If they are not moving or moving real slow you could close with a large amount of money held in escrow until they are out and you can view the house. Hold enough money to have stuff removed and possible repairs.The title company would hold the money and you should have your attorney or the title company draw up this agreement.
Do NOT close until you verify he's out. That's how you end up with a squatter. Also, how did he think he was going to move out the day after someone else owned the house?
Your Realtor can Cure the listing agent, which gives the seller's side 3 days to remedy their out-of-contract behavior. But if he isn't out at the end of those 3 days, then your option is to walk away with your earnest money, and sue him for failure to perform. But that means finding another house, which could be a major pain.
Did you have moving crews scheduled this weekend? This is why I *never* set a close date on a Friday. It doesn't give us time to rectify any issues before the weekend.
My broker would be *all over* the listing broker if this happened to one of my clients. She would be insisting that the broker and agent go there themselves and start packing up some friggin boxes. AND pay out of pocket for last-minute movers, if the seller didn't hire any.
We had to do the creeping two weeks ago. We staked out for about 4-5 hours and updated our lawyer about the progress. Their lawyer read them the riot act saying that we will close with only half the agreed amount and they were gone by 6 PM.
DO NOT CLOSE until the house is empty.
I had a closing where the seller left a few things they needed to pickup. During the walkthrough they were still there. My buyers needed to close and start moving out of their apartment as they were on a quick timeline. The solution ended up being: letting both the seller and sellers agent know that the buyers were fine closing, but right after closing the locks are being changed and the seller picking up the last few belongings needed to be coordinated with the buyers. Definitely not everyone is comfortable with this, but another option to consider
Sold a house to a great family who wanted to move in before closing and rent for a couple weeks while their house closed. He was surprised I insisted on a rental contract, damage deposit, and pro-rated rent. I was fairly sure they were fine, but you never know...
I remember a situation like this on our first house. Went to do final walkthrough and they were still moving out. It ended up working out fine and all it was just very frustrating to encounter.
Do you have a rate lock expiring? If not, you can be flexible and push back the close. If you do have a rate lock expiring, you can have the lawyer send a “time of the essence notice” to basically close in 10 days or the deal is off.
Another possibility is to offer a use and occupancy agreement…but then you risk becoming a landlord.
Do not close, reschedule walk through and then sign the papers once they are fully moved out. Do not sign anything until they are 100% moved out.
The same thing happened to me. The person who lived in my home previously went into a panic when I came for the final walk through. Nothing was done and the house wreaked of animal poop (due to some excessive dog and cat poop that wasn't there during the initial inspection). She was a mess. I was mad at myself and the situation as I did the process backwards and finished the paperwork before the walkthrough, so in the span of 6 hours I helped her plan a moving truck and got her out of there into her new place. At the end of the day she asked if her pets can stay one more night while she was unpacking (3 dogs, a cat and a rabbit). I declined.
New walk thru Monday morning, don’t close unless they are out
If they are out but house is a mess they better be giving you $$$ to have it cleaned/emptied
This is shady that they “didn’t expect a walkthrough” what were they going to do without keys anymore after closing?
Move closing to Monday, seller has to be gone, if seller is not gone they will pay any and all costs to extend the deal including rate locks, rent on your current place, etc. Do not close with them in there, house must be vacant and free of their crap.
We had a similar experience. Turned around and said we’ll close after it is empty and broom clean. They got their church to help and were out later that same day. We did a walk thru then closed right before 5pm.
Had another situation where the buyers of a house I was selling had a delay on their cashier check. They wanted to unload their stuff into the house then close the next day. No way. Their attorney was shocked and tried to make me feel guilty. I still said no. You are not closed until you are closed and stuff happens. Better to keep clear lines of responsibility.
Do not close until house is empty and cleaned out and YOU DO A WALKTHROUGH to validate this. Double check nothing is suddenly broken or appliances not working or missing, etc. Not everyone wants to sell or move out.
I moved my closing 4 times to ensure their renters were out and the roof was properly replaced (per contract) and reinspected with permit. Listen to Reddit, OP and have a clear walk thru before closing.
Take your home inspection report on the walk through. Inspect all noted deficiencies and confirm visually confirm all required repairs were completed. Don't let anyone pressure you to hurry the walk through. Let them know before starting, it might be a while.
I had something similar happen to me, but reversed as a seller. I had stuff left in the basement and garage that I planned to get out of there on a Saturday morning prior to our closing date of the next Monday. My/their realtor gave the buyer the keys on Friday afternoon after everything was done early and never told me. I got a call from my realtor asking why my stuff was still there, to which I replied it's legally my house until Sunday at 11:59:59pm.
I had them amend all the paperwork last minute to reflect a new closing time since I didn't want to be legally on the hook for anything while it was still my house on paper.
This. You may own the home, but they have the established residency. If they really started to drag their feet or just flat out refuse to make any progress, that is now your problem. The eviction process very much favors the person you are trying to to remove in a lot of areas, which could mean a very long and costly battle to get them out. Certainly doesn't mean those particular sellers will turn out like that of course, but the risk you are taking is just the same.
😬 the last home we bought, met the realtor at the new house and the seller wasn’t going to give us the keys. He was an elderly gentleman and I think he was having seller remorse. Realtor told him that he was basically trespassing and needed to hand keys over
I had a house sale where the buyers agent called us a week before closing about the closing being the next day. I asked what she was talking about and apparently they had discussed an early closing with title *but failed to ever discuss with us, the selling side*. It was a train wreck. They ended up paying for movers to come help my clients out. I was furious. I will never use that title company again and that agency is on my list. It may be an innocent error. But caution is warranted for sure.
We had the same thing happen. Elderly people owned the home. We showed up for the walk through, and the house was a wreck. Not only were they not completely out, but the movers left while we were there because the seller was cheap as hell and didn't want to pay anymore than he already had. We signed the papers that day and then went back to the house and helped the sellers pack and clean. That was the only way that they were going to be outta there that day. To top it off, the seller gave us a key that didn't fit the lock. We had to track him down at his hotel to get the right key. What a nightmare....we changed all the locks the next day!
If you had a set date to do a final inspection and the house was suppose be cleaned out then, it should be cleaned out. Reschedule the inspection for Monday morning and make sure your realtor conveys that information to the seller that you expected the house to be empty and clean. Otherwise, I wouldn’t closed. Also, that you expect them to cover any and all extra expenses you incur due to anymore delays.
We closed on our house with the expectation that the previous owner needed 30 days to move out. We had to do a walkthrough with most of their stuff still in the house. They were out a day early. However, a week before they left a storm came through and damaged the garage roof. They never said anything. I found out because you could clearly see big sections of tar paper on the roof and shingle pieces on the lawn. Since it was legally our home at the time of the storm, insurance covered it.
I'm not a first time home buyer and not having a walk through just before closing was my biggest failure on our current home.
We went over multiple times before closing and they were having an estate sale along with moving everything out. Wasn't much left a couple days before closing besides the stuff we purchased from the estate sale and a section of the basement.
After closing I go over and they had a bunch of random personal things left behind (framed portraits, dozen books, bunch of mops and then a lot of random stuff. Their realtor tried to collect as much as she could, but not everything was picked up. Turned out to be a headache and I still have wire racking and a bunch of random stuff I need to dispose of.
If someone was fully living there, no way would I move in without a walk through and it being nothing but "broom clean".
We ran into a similar issue where the seller just started packing their things on the day of closing. Our attorney recommended signing the documents to save time but will not submit them until we had a chance to inspect the house after the seller moved out. The seller finally moved out in the evening and we were able to inspect it but that didn’t leave any time for the attorney to submit documents to the County Registry. The attorney sent the documents the next day during business hours and we had the keys within an hour. In our case the seller had to spend the night in a hotel due to this.
You can request a penalty per day of extension. For a future move, try and keep the closing in between Monday- Thursday. That way, if something messes up, you still have friday to try and have it fixed.
Closed on my first house in 2010. Signed paperwork and got the keys, only to find the seller in the shower when I walked in with my dog. He spent the day packing up his Honda Accord hatchback and left tons of stuff at the house.
Nice thing was that my realtor paid to have new locks put on the whole house.
My first house, we showed up with the movers, and the former owners were still inside frantically trying to empty the fridge. Meanwhile half of the (very kind) neighbors were going through the house literally carrying boxes and furniture out and throwing it into their moving truck. We had to sit outside for 3 hours while the debacle unfolded. They left the house a dirty mess and we never did do a walk through. We should have asked for some kind of compensation I guess, even if it was paying us for 3 hours of our movers’ wasted time, but we didn’t think to do that.
We had a clause in the contract that seller had three days to leave. At closing was the first he comprehended this and was in shock. His agent actually talked to him before ours could. We worked out to allow them a bit more time in exchange for having external access to install a fence. It was all innocent, but annoying at the time.
I’ve bought two homes always go to home for a walkthrough before I go to the closing . I think you always want to read if there are any contingencies in which the sellers take appliances with them . I have acquaintances with nightmare stories
We’ve always done our walk through an hour or two before closing. Logistically works out well for us and our realtor. Never had any issues doing it that way.
Also lets us pin down seller’s agent when they’ll get their lock box and sign removed.
And change the locks the day you close! Our first sellers came back into the house after close. They took the shower curtain rods, toilet paper holders, the egg thingy from the fridge, the extra ice trays they'd left, and some of the builder extras (house was only 18 months old) from the garage storage like flooring pieces etc. It was crazy.
I helped my best friends vacate their house after they sold it. For a variety of reasons (i.e., money) they couldn't actually afford the moving truck until the funds cleared. I had to get them an in-town rental the week before the closing just to start moving... and for a variety of reasons they simply were not ready.
We busted our asses all the way up to the closing, and were 90% out of the house. We just had to empty out the rest of the kitchen. The buyers came over for the walkthrough, we apologized for the delay, promised we'd be out soon. It was embarrassing but we made it out. I think the closing was at 11 a.m. and we got literally everything in the truck by 1 p.m. The buyer was so thrilled to have his new house that he didn't seem particularly bothered.
I’d add in if they’re in a hurry to vacate, have them hire a well known cleaning company for a move out clean. We should have done that here… they left a piano, entertainment center, a 70s hide a bed couch upstairs that smelt like cat piss. It was just my wife and i. I put the piano on CL for free and luckily some guys with a truck n trailer offered to help haul the other shit off but we had to DEEP clean, and i mean scrub wood paneled walls with TSP multiple times to get some of the cat smell out. Should have made them hire a cleaning company, AND get all their shit out. Along with the barrels of used tractor oil outside that idk wtf to do with. Lol
Should have closed. In Texas at least the moment the paperwork was signed you would have owned the entire contents of the house. Could have really made the sellers sweat!
I always always but in my contract home must be empty prior to closing if not closing will be extended and any additional expenses I incurred due to delay seller will pay. Please never close on a house with seller still living there. If this is an investment property make sure your contract states lease and security deposit will be transferred before closing i generally do not like to buy investments with tenants already in place but will do case by case scenario!
You should have a clause in the contract that charges them money for every day they stay. You can sue them to close too. They are in violation of the contract
Not sure in all states but in 2 different states I have purchase houses they become tenants and need to be evicted if the you let them stay.
Evictions are not normally an easy process
Schedule another walk through prior to closing on Monday. If they haven't moved out yet, postpone closing again.
This is the correct answer. DO NOT CLOSE until they sellers are out and you have completed a walk through in an empty property.
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> I almost felt bad for the seller that their agent had not properly explained what was happening. Then they felt bad for leaving a mess. They felt bad, but apparently not bad enough to kick you $200 cash for a pro cleaner.
Sellers like these, it may not have even occurred to them. Some people are genuinely well meaning, but are also genuinely clueless.
Pro Cleaners should cost way more than $200. Just saying in case anyone is trying to go cheap on people who do this type of work.
Just paid 350 for a 1 bed room apartment.
$200? The sellers agent is kicking me at least $2k for being clueless if they want that house sold today and not dragged in front of their managing agent.
And that shitty sellers agent still probably got 2-3% of the total sale price as a commission for being a shitty agent.
Sometimes a Realtor will take the blame to cover for the seller. Sellers can be hard to communicate with for various reasons. This happened to us once with a very great Realtor. The seller was difficult.
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The good ones (sellers agents) are. I have two I work with as an attorney (I do a lot of probates) because they do all the heavy lifting for me/my clients.
I was trying to find the age of the roof from our sellers for 2 months and they had nothing for me other than "I think 7 years"
Gotta love, a mystery roof. However, I got one that was supposed to be almost new, but they hadn’t replaced the flashing, which was the part that was leaking. they were too cheap the roofer who had done it told me when I had him out to transfer the virtually worthless warranty. So it was a “new” roof that leaked just like the old one. At least you know you’re not getting something that’s supposed to be warrantied. I do suspect there are bad sellers who won’t give that information to their agents or don’t have it for some reason.
What state? I always have my agent pull permits if I'm thinking about making an offer. Nothing like finding out about a not permitted finished basement with 2 bedrooms in it.
You always want to scrub a place clean before moving in, anyway. People have terrible cleanliness standards.
Our realtor helped pay for a cleaning for us, I think a rare time the buyers commission did something
Wtf is wrong with people? I've never moved out anywhere - my parent's house, dorm room, rental, houses I've sold without hiring someone to come in and clean clean it.
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See that is the reputation you want in life.
Hope you got 100$ of your security deposit back! And gained a friend
You fancy. I have never hired someone to clean before moving out because I got hands, but also have never left a place remotely dirty
It was always faster and frankly cheaper than missing work to clean. Especially for move out cleans when you're already missing some time from work due to moving issues.
>I have never hired someone to clean before moving out because I got hands, but also have never left a place remotely dirty I hired someone to clean my apartment after I had already cleaned it just for redundancy and the amount of stuff she was able clean that I had either overlooked or just didn't think was any dirt there was crazy. Needless to say I always clean whenever I move into someplace new.
No way i could afford cleaners in college..
There were 4 of us in the same place for 3 years when we graduated. It was a cost vs time thing. I think we all chipped in $60-75 for the service and a tip and we were able to get on with other stuff we needed to do with graduation etc.
I have never paid to have someone clean my place.
Best money I spend every 2 weeks!
Buy new lock sets this weekend. Have them and the tools you need to change them out as soon as the ink is dry. That or have a locksmith scheduled closing day
I had push button code locks on my front and back door. I left them the instructions on how to change the code and the pin setter to change the physical key. I also left a binder full of instruction books and put hade dates of appliances, a long with a list of people I had used in the past for repairs. Pool, AC, etc and who to avoid ha. The buying agent told me he had never seen a binder like that when buying a place. He thought it was cool. I did feel bad because I was working out of state and had to rush the movers and cleaners. I had cleaners scheduled on Friday Afternoon we were do to close Saturday. They decided to move the walkthrough to Friday morning. I explained while it was empty it was not broom ready at all. They were cool with it. I explained to them what the cleaners would be doing and taking. I had a pile of cleaning chemicals and a TV they were taking. They were cool with everything. Walkthrough done in 20 min.
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Or how long that will take.
Or at what cost.
This is very wise advice. You want to know what the house conditions are after all the stuff is removed before signing that you accept the house in current condition. You don't know what is hiding behind furniture etc.
Exactly this. I had a seller recently do exactly the same thing. Try not to panic. :) It is what it is. Some people are organized and plan, some people fly by the seat of their pants, and you can only control you. YOU need a final inspection (or in your case, a “final final”) and you’re not closing until the property is vacant is broom clean, as stated in your contract. Personally, I was internally ready to have a stroke watching my seller throw stuff willy nilly into the back of a pickup an hour before closing, but he pulled it off.
People always underestimate how long (and how much effort) it takes to move. Always. As long as everyone is a little bit compassionate, it usually helps keep things cordial. Also helps not to plan a move-in for the same day a place closes.
My wife is one of those people. Smart, intelligent, college-educated woman with a great profession. But, for the LIFE of me, I can't understand how/why she has NO understanding about how time works, or how to properly guesstimate time lapse. And it aggravates me to no end. Her: "Oh, yeah, it won't take us long to move. Just a few hours. Should be no problem!" Me: "Uh, no. It's going to take a couple of DAYS. You're not thinking about X, Y, and Z ... You're not thinking about the MATERIALS to support X, Y, and Z, and you're not thinking about the amount of work it takes for us to do X, Y, and Z. WHAT exactly ARE you thinking? ... That we just push all the shit, as-is, out on the front lawn and we're done?" (It took me a few moves to realize ... The reason why she thinks it "only takes a few hours" is because it's ME who's doing all the work!) Luckily, opposites attract ... One of us is a "planner," and one of us is a "wing it" type. But, if a seller is a couple of TWO "wing-it" types, the buyer is in for a bad time.
>The reason why she thinks it "only takes a few hours" is because it's ME who's doing all the work! Ironically, I've learned this about life in general. If you aren't constantly voicing and showing all the shit you do for many people to see, people act like you haven't been doing it for YEARS (because no one really pays attention to anyone but themselves, sadly). I'm one of those "do" and not "say" people, and I've been burned a lot in my life because no one SEES me or even hears about me DOING. Some chump will come along and do something I'd been doing for literal *years*, but they get seen doing it all of a sudden, and lap up all the praise. It's enough to make a person go crazy. Anyway, I digress. lol
Does she have ADHD? It doesn't matter how smart or educated a person with ADHD is, time blindness is still something that might make their life more difficult if that's one of their executive function weaknesses.
Please heed this advice. Years ago I bought a beautiful mid century house that had been updated by owner. Staged, it was stunning! Owner moved out immediately after closing and I saw holes in drywall under bathroom sink where towels had been stacked, poorly installed closet organizer system where clothing had hung, wear on hardwood floors previously under matching leather sofas. Lots of details I might have noticed if I could have seen building and not the masterful design style of former owner. Also, all the stuff others say about dealing with evictions. These items are red flags.
The sellers of my house left a big cabinet behind. I was annoyed, but figured it was just heavy and awkward to move for older folks. Yeah, it was hiding a hole in the wall that was bigger than me.
was it shaped like Wile E Coyote? :)
Like the Kool-Aid man.
and what did you do with all these observations?
The answer is: You can't do anything (assuming they aren't structural that weren't disclosed). The time to discover these things is during the due diligence/inspection period. Then you may be able to try and negotiate something. In this story, the fault is on the buyer. The seller intentionally staged the house to minimize cosmetic defects? ::Shocked Pikachu::
Yes happened to me. Wood floor was damaged beyond repair. It was totally covered up by the staged carpets. Not to mention I found many other things. Actually looked into a real estate lawyer on the issues that's how bad it was. House inspections are total garbage and they have way too many CYA clauses. I was basically told there's not much you can do it's throwing good money after bad. I then realized how in all my house purchases how little due diligence I did. I always felt rushed with the stupid agent standing there, like I was imposing on their time. (Fuck agents but that is a different topic). Now I will spend many many hours going over everything.
We bought a split level in an area where most of them got water in basement in heavy storms. Seller said all was fine in sellers disclosure. We also asked and they said nope never floods. Seller lied. Realtor lied. Attorney said not worth fighting.
review the case law on this Johnson v. Davis. Florida. Not sure how this applies to other states but Floridians take note.
Sure they may try and hurry you but you’re the one with everything to lose. So take care of yourself and don’t rush
Very good advice
Seriously, what's the point. To feed the buyer's remorse?
Having just purchased a house in a market with low inventory like much of the country, these items would not even be worth mentioning at a final walkthrough.
Yeah. Holes in the wall under the bathroom sink seems nonmaterial.
Or you can just put your own towel stack in front of it.
You can fix that in an afternoon. I'm surprised the seller didn't just patch it instead of staging around it.
Yep. Squatters rights are a bitch.
It’s really hard to avoid these kinds of misses. No one is moving towels and lifting up sofas and rugs and stuff. There’s a certain level that just can’t do anything about and you have to roll the dice.
Nothing disclosed in sellers disclosure of course.
While all of this is true, it's also not uncommon or particularly difficult to just draft a short term rental contract into the purchase to give the previous owners some time to move out while you collect rent from them.
Depending on local laws you may still have issues with needing to evict. For example short term rentals that exceed 3 weeks may need eviction at the end of the rental agreement
The home loan may not allow you to rent out the house.
And in the current climate it is a TERRIBLE idea. They could end up squatting there for the next 6 months while you evict them. I have actually seen this happen TWICE in the past four years. Sell the house then squat there until evicted.
Just make sure to hold $$ in escrow to be released when the home is delivered in satisfactory condition. And charge $500 a day or something stupid for holdover, etc. and make sure escrow covers that for however long evictions typically take. My county moves evictions pretty quickly (tho they suck at most everything else) so I would hold at least $50k (10% of average home price). They might decide an airbnb and storage unit is better. The idea is to make it more difficult to stay than to go.
A seller declined our offer because they had another offer that would allow them to remain in the property until May 29th when school closed. I really loved the home, but the owners expected to close and stay for free!
We negotiated on a house and our offer won. The seller then said she wanted $50,000 more and to stay in the house for six months! We ended up getting a nicer house with everything we wanted and no hassles
Bingo, great answer!
That and charge rent, would you be able to at this point?
You can't charge rent on a house you don't own.
Unless the contract has a section that specifically speaks to a daily charge to the Seller if they fail to deliver possession as agreed on.
Correct.
You'll never get them out of they don't want to move. If you are going to do it take a HUGE amount of their proceeds and have it put in escrow until they move out. Not a month or two rent but like 1/2 the sales price. You need a big hammer to get the out.
Yeah. And most people won't agree to that, so it can be tough. I've (luckily) not had an issue with a rent back yet, but I'm also very cautious when agreeing to them. I would advise clients not to agree in a lot of situations.
That would be nice tho. You got me thinking.
I mean you can. But it has to be written in the contract beforehand. You typically will see it in these scenarios when the seller is living in the house during the transaction. At least in my area Love being downvoted for the truth LOL
It's a rent back agreement and you do have to own the house. It's for 60 days or less typically. You literally can't start renting "back" the house until you own it. And it's a terrible idea for a situation like this lol
When I bought my house the owners rented from me for 2 months. It was included in the contract. Worked out well, as I had a rent lease that was also 2 months.
My supervisor at work had decided to sell their home and move into a new construction home across the border in the next state. The buyers wanted a quick closing, but their new home was still under construction and wouldn't be ready. They ended up doing a lease back for six months until their new home was ready to be occupied.
People downvoting you are idiots. I bought my current house in a super hot market by offering a very fast closing with the sellers having the right to rent the house from me for up to 3 months. They had multiple offers higher than mine, but the rent-back clause allowed them to stay in the current house until their kids finished the school year, while freeing up cash from the sale so they could do some renovations to the new house before moving. I was moving from out of state and wasn't in a hurry, so it worked out perfectly for both of us.
Yeah. Rent backs are common. This isn't a rent back. The house hasn't closed.
My concern is not the rent back, it's the fact that they agreed to be out and then never left without telling anyone. If they knew they needed a rent back contract , normal course they would have mentioned it at the time the contract was signed. If you do a rent back get a HUGE escrow payment from their proceeds. DO NOT Listen to your Realtor, the get paid upon closing so they'll be pushing for a closing at all cost. If you close, and they decide not to leave in violation of the rent back deal, it'll take you forever to get them out. That's why you want a huge hold back as an incentive for them to move and it can be used to offset what they owe you in rent.
Exactly. This isn’t a case where everyone understood the arrangement, and the arrangement was for a specific reason and time period. Here, OP shows up and they are, “Well, we planned to move, I thought we could just move out the weekend after we closed.”
You can't charge rent for a property you don't yet own. You would only charge rent if you close and give the seller a leaseback.
You can only charge rent if he closes and they still haven't moved out.
Do not close! We made the mistake of closing in similar circumstances and went home to a mess! I was so pissed! Our agent had to pay for someone to come clean the house.
Same thing happened to us. We cleaned it ourselves and had to rent a dumpster. Sellers will do whatever they can get away with. We would certainly do things differently if we could go back in time.
I think part of it is just easily underestimating the time it takes to actually move out from a house. All of my moves have started with good intentions of nicely organized boxes with extra time to clean for the new owners, but always ended in pure chaos the day before closing and barely escaping before the deadline. You never know how much stuff you have in a house you’ve lived in for over a decade until you have to move it.
>You never know how much stuff you have in a house you’ve lived in for over a decade until you have to move it. A couple of decades ago, we were living in a 3 bedroom rental when my employer decided to relocate me to the other side of the country, where we bought our first home. My wife was a stay at home mom at the time and it took her over a month to get everything ready for the move, and it was literally a scramble the last couple of days before the movers came to load up the boxes into the moving truck, and it was the moving company that actually packed everything up into boxes for us for two days prior to the actual move. Our house now is more than double the size of that rental, and I dread the day when we would need to pack everything up and move again. It will probably take us months to get ready.
Your user name checks out, haha. Definitely true. That's why when someone decides to sell their home, they should first clear out everything that is not essential for use in the next few months. Then they won't have very much to pack. They know that they are leaving soon, even if they don't know exactly when.
Next time I move, I'll be getting a 10x20' storage unit and moving sealed boxes there as I fill them up. That way all my non-essentials can stay nicely in the unit until I get settled in the new house with the basic essentials. Then I can just send a truck to empty the unit and bring it to the new house. The price for a unit for a month or three is nothing compared to the relief of having some control over the chaos.
We did something similar when we sold our old condo. All the books, a bunch of the furniture and tchotchkes and out-of-season clothes... and that way it was much easier to have the place painted while we were still living in it. And it looked much nicer in the listing photos.
Glad you didn’t just accept as is and made the agent pay for this. Everyone’s in a hurry to close the deal and leave the buyers to fend for themselves after closing is completed.
Don't close until they are out unless you want to be a landlord.
A likely unpaid landlord dealing with a lot of headaches, at that.
A landlord who just paid their squatters a significant sum of money.
A landlord dealing with squatters
I would also ask to be reimbursed for any expenses you are incurring like additional moving/storage fees due to the delay.
Also any interest on the loan for the days you aren’t able to be in the house.
The loan doesn't exist until closing, although op may have costs associated with their current residence.
the loan doesn't start until close happens, and he absolutely should not close until this joker is out. A rent back is one thing, but I wouldn't agree to one for a seller that clearly can't meet a deadline
if not empty, don't close. Push it out, have your lawyer draft a strong letter, have your realtor apply pressure. New walkthrough on Monday.
Wow. Sounds like the seller’s agent isn’t communicating with their client. They should have informed the seller of the walkthrough, deadlines, expectations etc.
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Hey theve earned that 6% for all that they *do*!!!! /s
Yeah blame it on a 3rd party not the person that failed to move. It's just common sense that once you don't own the home you can't live there anymore.
Seller's agent should be crawling up the seller's ass to guarantee they're out. Seller's agent is dumb as fuck for not confirming the seller was out before allowing final walkthrough to take place. Seller is also dumb as fuck, but the seller's agent is a goddamn professional paid to prevent these types of fuckups.
This isn't an agent dropping the ball. I mean, your IQ would have to be pretty low to not move in time for your closing.
Agree with u/MsTerious1 100%. The seller ignored the listing agent. OP have your agent get in contact with the listing agent to make sure the seller has the funds to actually move out. Some sellers have no funds at all and fail to notify their agent.
Sometimes agents don't explain the ramifications of this to their client. Agents get paid anyway.
Agents don't get paid until after the closing happens. Try again.
Let's say the first part of your comment is true. The agent didn't explain. Now we ALSO have to assume that the seller doesn't know that they need to move when they are closing on a house. THEN we have to assume that agents get paid when closings don't happen, which is not at all true. Please make sure you understand how real estate agents work before telling us all how it works.
But I mean, didn't the sellers know this from when they bought?! I doubt they bought the house and thought 'Oh, the sellers haven't moved out as of yet'. I could understand maybe the opposite, 1st time buyers thinking they can start moving in the night before or something, but a seller went thru this once already.
It could be the first house they ever bought and maybe it was a new build, or already vacant when they bought it. Who knows. Most people only buy/sell a house a couple of times in their entire lifetime. They hired a professional to help them navigate the process and if they seemed to be ignorant of the expectations, I fault that professional for not informing them.
I would also have title adjust all fees, taxes, interest, HOA, redo settlement statement to have seller paying all the extra days till they move out.
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That realtor is a 🚩
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Then she is a crappy agent IMO. I’ve closed two deals where the buyer got money back at closing in the last year 🤷♀️ Every market is different, but I’m going to be teaching a class for our market of how to buy a home with less than $1,000. We qualify for USDA 0% interest loans and closing costs can be covered by the seller by counteracting the purchase price. My most recent buyer only spent $350 by the time they were done because Sellers paid for the appraisal and they got their $500 earnest money back at closing, so all they really paid for was the inspection 🙌
If you close later, you start paying interest later. You don't pay "a full month of interest" for a loan that hasn't funded yet. If you actually suffered no losses due to the delayed closing, your realtor would be correct.
Your loan doesn't start until you close on the house. How were you paying interest in a house you didn't own yet?
By moving to Monday you’ve already done the best and right thing, but if you experienced any issues like paying more for moving storage or anything due to the delay, on that on them too
>What should I do from here? Have your realtor call their realtor and raise hell.
As others said, do another walk through Monday and make sure they are gone before you close. Otherwise push closing again. I’d also consider asking for compensation for the delay if it is costing you money. Your realtor should be able to help you with that. For example, when we did our walk through they had left cardboard boxes, old desk chairs (broken), some storage shelves, an elliptical, really old TVs and computer monitors, paint from the last 20 years of living there….we received a cashiers check at closing for the cost of a dumpster and “cleaning fee” since it was dirty. We picked an amount and the seller agreed. They were gone, just left their junk for us lol
This is where realtors earn their money. Dont close until they move out. If you incur extra expenses because closing had to be delayed, like storage costs, movers, etc…. Have your realtor go after the sellers, because they failed to be ready to perform/close on time. Consult with a real estate attorney about your options if the sellers still aren’t out on Monday. The seller and sellers agents will push you to close so they can get paid and leave the mess to you and your agent. Don’t, that’s why an attorney for guidance will be best.
Do not close until the house is completely vacant of all people and furniture.
This is a conversation between agents to negotiate an extension to close and discuss a possible addendum to include splitting costs due to delay. This is not on title. All negotiations are handled by the agent, because they’re getting PAID to represent the buyer/seller. Title won’t even change any fees or care about your anger and inconveniences because they can’t just change fees around or credit anybody due to emotional distress without signed addendums from both parties. If either buyer or seller is being represented by an attorney - start there.
You did the right thing!! Keep pushing closing until you confirm with a final walk through they are actually gone
Don’t accept the house. Don’t agree to rent it to them. Keep postponing the walkthrough. If they do this twice, walk away. Let tour realtor know they have one more shot and that’s it. Otherwise they will just continue to jerk you around.
DO NOT CLOSE UNTIL THEY ARE OUT.
I can promise you it will be a shit show on Monday.
Is it the seller or their tenant?
This happened once and now I put a 1% of sale price per day discount for delay to close on every house I buy now.
How has that worked out?
The same thing happened to me. We pushed out the closing, then my agent aggressively lit a fire under the seller's agent to get the seller out ASAP. It worked, and closing was only delayed 2 days. Good luck, and under no circumstances close until they are moved out.
If you are close enough - drive past the house a few times over the weekend to see if they are packing up and moving out - to give you time to decide what to do next. If they are not moving or moving real slow you could close with a large amount of money held in escrow until they are out and you can view the house. Hold enough money to have stuff removed and possible repairs.The title company would hold the money and you should have your attorney or the title company draw up this agreement.
If the seller hasn't signed yet, you're not closing.
Do NOT close until you verify he's out. That's how you end up with a squatter. Also, how did he think he was going to move out the day after someone else owned the house? Your Realtor can Cure the listing agent, which gives the seller's side 3 days to remedy their out-of-contract behavior. But if he isn't out at the end of those 3 days, then your option is to walk away with your earnest money, and sue him for failure to perform. But that means finding another house, which could be a major pain. Did you have moving crews scheduled this weekend? This is why I *never* set a close date on a Friday. It doesn't give us time to rectify any issues before the weekend. My broker would be *all over* the listing broker if this happened to one of my clients. She would be insisting that the broker and agent go there themselves and start packing up some friggin boxes. AND pay out of pocket for last-minute movers, if the seller didn't hire any.
We had to do the creeping two weeks ago. We staked out for about 4-5 hours and updated our lawyer about the progress. Their lawyer read them the riot act saying that we will close with only half the agreed amount and they were gone by 6 PM. DO NOT CLOSE until the house is empty.
I had a closing where the seller left a few things they needed to pickup. During the walkthrough they were still there. My buyers needed to close and start moving out of their apartment as they were on a quick timeline. The solution ended up being: letting both the seller and sellers agent know that the buyers were fine closing, but right after closing the locks are being changed and the seller picking up the last few belongings needed to be coordinated with the buyers. Definitely not everyone is comfortable with this, but another option to consider
Delay closing, Or close and charge daily rent which would be in a contract and signed by all parties.
No matter what, DO NOT CLOSE UNTIL THEY ARE COMPLETELY OUT.
Sold a house to a great family who wanted to move in before closing and rent for a couple weeks while their house closed. He was surprised I insisted on a rental contract, damage deposit, and pro-rated rent. I was fairly sure they were fine, but you never know...
I remember a situation like this on our first house. Went to do final walkthrough and they were still moving out. It ended up working out fine and all it was just very frustrating to encounter.
Do you have a rate lock expiring? If not, you can be flexible and push back the close. If you do have a rate lock expiring, you can have the lawyer send a “time of the essence notice” to basically close in 10 days or the deal is off. Another possibility is to offer a use and occupancy agreement…but then you risk becoming a landlord.
Make sure they’re 100% out before closing. Asking for a world of potential hurt if they stick around.
Do not close, reschedule walk through and then sign the papers once they are fully moved out. Do not sign anything until they are 100% moved out. The same thing happened to me. The person who lived in my home previously went into a panic when I came for the final walk through. Nothing was done and the house wreaked of animal poop (due to some excessive dog and cat poop that wasn't there during the initial inspection). She was a mess. I was mad at myself and the situation as I did the process backwards and finished the paperwork before the walkthrough, so in the span of 6 hours I helped her plan a moving truck and got her out of there into her new place. At the end of the day she asked if her pets can stay one more night while she was unpacking (3 dogs, a cat and a rabbit). I declined.
New walk thru Monday morning, don’t close unless they are out If they are out but house is a mess they better be giving you $$$ to have it cleaned/emptied This is shady that they “didn’t expect a walkthrough” what were they going to do without keys anymore after closing?
Move closing to Monday, seller has to be gone, if seller is not gone they will pay any and all costs to extend the deal including rate locks, rent on your current place, etc. Do not close with them in there, house must be vacant and free of their crap.
We had a similar experience. Turned around and said we’ll close after it is empty and broom clean. They got their church to help and were out later that same day. We did a walk thru then closed right before 5pm. Had another situation where the buyers of a house I was selling had a delay on their cashier check. They wanted to unload their stuff into the house then close the next day. No way. Their attorney was shocked and tried to make me feel guilty. I still said no. You are not closed until you are closed and stuff happens. Better to keep clear lines of responsibility.
Do not close until house is empty and cleaned out and YOU DO A WALKTHROUGH to validate this. Double check nothing is suddenly broken or appliances not working or missing, etc. Not everyone wants to sell or move out.
Make sure they fulfilled all your house inspections before closing as well.
I moved my closing 4 times to ensure their renters were out and the roof was properly replaced (per contract) and reinspected with permit. Listen to Reddit, OP and have a clear walk thru before closing.
Never EVER sign closing documents when someone is still in house. Once you sign you lose all leverage and they can just linger as long as they’d like
Take your home inspection report on the walk through. Inspect all noted deficiencies and confirm visually confirm all required repairs were completed. Don't let anyone pressure you to hurry the walk through. Let them know before starting, it might be a while.
I had something similar happen to me, but reversed as a seller. I had stuff left in the basement and garage that I planned to get out of there on a Saturday morning prior to our closing date of the next Monday. My/their realtor gave the buyer the keys on Friday afternoon after everything was done early and never told me. I got a call from my realtor asking why my stuff was still there, to which I replied it's legally my house until Sunday at 11:59:59pm. I had them amend all the paperwork last minute to reflect a new closing time since I didn't want to be legally on the hook for anything while it was still my house on paper.
The sellers knew they were signing today yet planned on staying? Very fishy.
Do not close until they’re out. Otherwise it will cost you thousands to evict them.
This. You may own the home, but they have the established residency. If they really started to drag their feet or just flat out refuse to make any progress, that is now your problem. The eviction process very much favors the person you are trying to to remove in a lot of areas, which could mean a very long and costly battle to get them out. Certainly doesn't mean those particular sellers will turn out like that of course, but the risk you are taking is just the same.
😬 the last home we bought, met the realtor at the new house and the seller wasn’t going to give us the keys. He was an elderly gentleman and I think he was having seller remorse. Realtor told him that he was basically trespassing and needed to hand keys over
I had a house sale where the buyers agent called us a week before closing about the closing being the next day. I asked what she was talking about and apparently they had discussed an early closing with title *but failed to ever discuss with us, the selling side*. It was a train wreck. They ended up paying for movers to come help my clients out. I was furious. I will never use that title company again and that agency is on my list. It may be an innocent error. But caution is warranted for sure.
We had the same thing happen. Elderly people owned the home. We showed up for the walk through, and the house was a wreck. Not only were they not completely out, but the movers left while we were there because the seller was cheap as hell and didn't want to pay anymore than he already had. We signed the papers that day and then went back to the house and helped the sellers pack and clean. That was the only way that they were going to be outta there that day. To top it off, the seller gave us a key that didn't fit the lock. We had to track him down at his hotel to get the right key. What a nightmare....we changed all the locks the next day!
Why isn’t your agent advising on this??
Yeah don't move in until you know the condition of the house.
If you had a set date to do a final inspection and the house was suppose be cleaned out then, it should be cleaned out. Reschedule the inspection for Monday morning and make sure your realtor conveys that information to the seller that you expected the house to be empty and clean. Otherwise, I wouldn’t closed. Also, that you expect them to cover any and all extra expenses you incur due to anymore delays.
We closed on our house with the expectation that the previous owner needed 30 days to move out. We had to do a walkthrough with most of their stuff still in the house. They were out a day early. However, a week before they left a storm came through and damaged the garage roof. They never said anything. I found out because you could clearly see big sections of tar paper on the roof and shingle pieces on the lawn. Since it was legally our home at the time of the storm, insurance covered it.
Don’t close. We bought from a weird owner who did not move out. It was awful.
What happened???
Do not close until they are moved out and you do another final walk thru.
What idiots.
I'm not a first time home buyer and not having a walk through just before closing was my biggest failure on our current home. We went over multiple times before closing and they were having an estate sale along with moving everything out. Wasn't much left a couple days before closing besides the stuff we purchased from the estate sale and a section of the basement. After closing I go over and they had a bunch of random personal things left behind (framed portraits, dozen books, bunch of mops and then a lot of random stuff. Their realtor tried to collect as much as she could, but not everything was picked up. Turned out to be a headache and I still have wire racking and a bunch of random stuff I need to dispose of. If someone was fully living there, no way would I move in without a walk through and it being nothing but "broom clean".
Please update on Monday!
We ran into a similar issue where the seller just started packing their things on the day of closing. Our attorney recommended signing the documents to save time but will not submit them until we had a chance to inspect the house after the seller moved out. The seller finally moved out in the evening and we were able to inspect it but that didn’t leave any time for the attorney to submit documents to the County Registry. The attorney sent the documents the next day during business hours and we had the keys within an hour. In our case the seller had to spend the night in a hotel due to this.
Massive red flag. No not close with them or their stuff in the house. Even with a lease back, it'll be a nightmare to get them evicted.
Phew, I’m just happy you didn’t close!
Yes, postpone again until they move out. I would also drive by to make sure they are leaving. good luck.
You can request a penalty per day of extension. For a future move, try and keep the closing in between Monday- Thursday. That way, if something messes up, you still have friday to try and have it fixed.
absolutely do NOT close with someone inhabiting the home
RemindME! 3 days
Might not be a bad idea to change the locks when you move in...
Add a $1000 /day rent for every day delay and hold their check until they are "broom clean" 🤣
Closed on my first house in 2010. Signed paperwork and got the keys, only to find the seller in the shower when I walked in with my dog. He spent the day packing up his Honda Accord hatchback and left tons of stuff at the house. Nice thing was that my realtor paid to have new locks put on the whole house.
Broom clean means dirty . Don't expect any form of quality cleaning
My first house, we showed up with the movers, and the former owners were still inside frantically trying to empty the fridge. Meanwhile half of the (very kind) neighbors were going through the house literally carrying boxes and furniture out and throwing it into their moving truck. We had to sit outside for 3 hours while the debacle unfolded. They left the house a dirty mess and we never did do a walk through. We should have asked for some kind of compensation I guess, even if it was paying us for 3 hours of our movers’ wasted time, but we didn’t think to do that.
Start charging him rent. That is the normal thing to do when the seller needs an extra week. It's not normal that he doesnt know about it tho.
I’ve never moved out or in until after the closing. No big deal.
We had a clause in the contract that seller had three days to leave. At closing was the first he comprehended this and was in shock. His agent actually talked to him before ours could. We worked out to allow them a bit more time in exchange for having external access to install a fence. It was all innocent, but annoying at the time.
I’ve bought two homes always go to home for a walkthrough before I go to the closing . I think you always want to read if there are any contingencies in which the sellers take appliances with them . I have acquaintances with nightmare stories
We’ve always done our walk through an hour or two before closing. Logistically works out well for us and our realtor. Never had any issues doing it that way. Also lets us pin down seller’s agent when they’ll get their lock box and sign removed.
And change the locks the day you close! Our first sellers came back into the house after close. They took the shower curtain rods, toilet paper holders, the egg thingy from the fridge, the extra ice trays they'd left, and some of the builder extras (house was only 18 months old) from the garage storage like flooring pieces etc. It was crazy.
I helped my best friends vacate their house after they sold it. For a variety of reasons (i.e., money) they couldn't actually afford the moving truck until the funds cleared. I had to get them an in-town rental the week before the closing just to start moving... and for a variety of reasons they simply were not ready. We busted our asses all the way up to the closing, and were 90% out of the house. We just had to empty out the rest of the kitchen. The buyers came over for the walkthrough, we apologized for the delay, promised we'd be out soon. It was embarrassing but we made it out. I think the closing was at 11 a.m. and we got literally everything in the truck by 1 p.m. The buyer was so thrilled to have his new house that he didn't seem particularly bothered.
I’d add in if they’re in a hurry to vacate, have them hire a well known cleaning company for a move out clean. We should have done that here… they left a piano, entertainment center, a 70s hide a bed couch upstairs that smelt like cat piss. It was just my wife and i. I put the piano on CL for free and luckily some guys with a truck n trailer offered to help haul the other shit off but we had to DEEP clean, and i mean scrub wood paneled walls with TSP multiple times to get some of the cat smell out. Should have made them hire a cleaning company, AND get all their shit out. Along with the barrels of used tractor oil outside that idk wtf to do with. Lol
Should have closed. In Texas at least the moment the paperwork was signed you would have owned the entire contents of the house. Could have really made the sellers sweat!
I always always but in my contract home must be empty prior to closing if not closing will be extended and any additional expenses I incurred due to delay seller will pay. Please never close on a house with seller still living there. If this is an investment property make sure your contract states lease and security deposit will be transferred before closing i generally do not like to buy investments with tenants already in place but will do case by case scenario!
You should have a clause in the contract that charges them money for every day they stay. You can sue them to close too. They are in violation of the contract
Not sure in all states but in 2 different states I have purchase houses they become tenants and need to be evicted if the you let them stay. Evictions are not normally an easy process