In Escrow and Buyers Want to Rent

[Maria Amaro]

      Hello. We are selling a house in Southern California and the buyers have asked for three extensions, have removed all contingencies, done final walk through. We were supposed to close today and now they are asking to rent from Dec to May in order to have time to improve their credit score. Their credit score is 680/660. They also claim they need time to pay off an IRS obligation due to withdrawing money from 401k after changing jobs. They stated after this, they will be a in a better position to afford the mortgage. 

     They were aware of their credit score and IRS obligation before they put in an offer on our house, so I am not sure I understand this. Also, isn't this credit score a little low for renting to someone? I worked for someone that owned properties in Houston and would feel comfortable being a landlord in TX, but CA has laws that make it more difficult to evict someone. If we were to rent, I would ask for a better credit score and anyway, we want the money from the house sale to buy a house next year. Any advice? Do we get their earnest money at this point? What are our options?