Seller changing his mind

[Justin Fraser]

Good morning BP! I'm hoping some of you with more experience can give me some insight into my current situation.

I viewed a good cash-flowing duplex (even planning on 60% for expenses) on Saturday. On Tuesday of this week, I offered $124K with $4K back at closing, and they accepted within an hour. Apparently he is a very motivated seller since his brother owned the property and died, he does not want to deal with it.

Yesterday I signed the contract and my RE agent sent it to the seller's agent. Apparently now the seller is having second thoughts because he may have to bring some money to closing since I'm asking for $4k back and he'll have to pay commissions. He has not asked me for more money, but has not signed yet. He is communicating with his agent, who communicates with my agent, who talks to me, so the messages takes awhile to go back and forth.

I don't want to drag this out because it's a good deal for me and I don't want to leave the door open for someone else to make an offer. I do really want the $4k back at closing so I can put that money into improving the property right away.

Because of all this, I'm debating upping my offer to $129k with $4k back at closing, so the cash back should become a non-issue for him and I still have the cash to do repairs. By the way, this property would still cash flow well for me at his original asking price of $139k.

I guess I'm looking for advice on how to handle this and whether I should go ahead and offer the seller a higher amount on the property or wait it out a bit and see if he asks. My agent is advising we wait a bit and see what happens, which I'll do for now, but I certainly would appreciate your feedback.

If you're interested in the details of cost/expenses, I posted the deal information with a $130K purchase price here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/88/topics/103961-analysis-on-a-duplex

[Bill Gulley]

Well, a deal is a deal, they signed it! But, if they refuse to show up at closing you'll be suing for performance and even at that, the seller may owe you damages but no one will force them to sell. If you are willing to pay more you might try to split the difference instead of paying the full amount, but do this on the phone with that agent as making another written offer might complicate your standing with your contract enforce.

If the place is under contract, they will need to clear your contract before accepting another, I'd just stress that we are under contract and work it out, when you have a solution I'd have the final agreement come from the seller to you as an addendum to the price. Good luck :)