Delaying closing due to corona - thoughts?

[Anthony Caiafa]

My closing on a flip house is being delayed due to "corona virus". The buyer is telling me its been difficult working from home so its going to delay the closing on his side. This seems like a bit of a BS thing and MY attorney is also telling me that "sure its difficult to work from home so it is OK to delay". Here is my main issue with this - I have carry and holding costs - does it make sense that everyone else gets their full amount, attorney fees / realtor fees - but I have to take a larger loss because of corona? It seems very single sided. That's money tied up somewhere that could be used in something else. Thoughts?

[JD Martin]

Thoughts:

1. Life isn't fair, so no point in bringing fairness into it.

2. The buyer is probably crapping his pants because of everything shutting down. Taking a hard tack could have them flee, and they would probably get their EM back because of Corona.

3. The buyer may know they have you by the nether regions because you would not want to start over in this economy and is trying to see if foot dragging will elicit some additional concessions. 

You won't really know what the answer is unless you probe further. If you don't care if the deal falls apart, take a hard stance on the contract and move on when they fall. Both sides have rights in the contract, and you almost certainly have a closing deadline. Hold them to it, even if you end up giving back the EM, if you think you can do better by rebooting. Otherwise, you are going to have to recognize that this is really unusual times and people may not act the same.