For sale by owner, seller wants to back out

[Melanie D Melton]

Hi, We live in Southern Illinois and we found a house on the fb marketplace that was for sale by owner. We viewed the home, made an offer for asking price, they accepted,  and we signed a standard real estate purchase agreement. Our closing date is this Monday and after calling to arrange an agreed upon final walkthrough, the seller became very rude and went on a rant about what a good deal we got and they knew it must have appraised way more than asking price and threatened to back out. We waived an inspection but our lender of course had an appraisal performed. We did get a pretty good deal but to me that's beside the point. After reading and rereading our contract, it states mandatory mediation is required before going to court. The cost is split between the two. I feel this is our last chance at owning a home. We, like many others, are being priced out of the housing market with the low inventory,  sky high prices and rising interest rates. The phone call ended with the seller stating they needed 1 more day to get their belongings moved. We are supposed to sign our mortgage papers Monday morning.  We have no idea what to do here!