All Forum Posts by: Rick Harmon

We just talked to a real estate attorney. Once the contingency/inspection  time frame is completed and everything is agreed upon  the buyer has NO right to enter the house unless the seller gives them permission.  In the state of Washington.  The seller has rights to enjoy the property just as a tenant would have the right until the home is no longer theirs. Just because you have an offer on a property does not mean you have a right to rule the lives of the sellers.  

Patrick that is exactly our thoughts.

Dan, we are in the state of Washington and our contract does not have that wording or clause.  Ours just says they have the right for an inspection and a right to refuse the inspection.  

Thank you

I am responding to all of the above in one reply. 

 We close in 2 weeks so I doubt that a lender can get financing locked in and completed in 2 weeks, the housing market is in a boom and everyone is pushed to the limits. Plus the home owner is paying for the appraisal so it is not a lenders appraiser.  

The house is not an investment house, it is an estate valued at well over a million so they are not searching for their next big score.  

The house is a "special" case with two huge out buildings one being a massive modernized gambrel style dairy barn and the other is a custom build shop/rv garage and many inspectors to not give a fair value to out buildings so it may not appraise at the agreed upon price. The COVID bounce is real and many homes across the country are not appraising at sale price causing buyers to bring extra cash to the table to cover the difference between the asking price and the appraisal price.  

We don't want to be combative but these buyers have been flaky since the beginning with low communication and response times. And feel they are just looking for an excuse to back out or ask for a lower price.  We had an offer of $75,000 more that was a financing offer but we took this one because it was cash and would not to meet the appraisal standards.

Thanks for the reply. We are past the 10 day discovery/inspection date the earnest money has been released so now all we do is wait for the closing and we still live in the house.  I don’t believe a buyer has the right to start sending in subs to get bids on what projects they would like to do after closing. They get a final walk through just before closing and other than that the house is not theirs to do as they please.  

We have a cash offer on our house and we have met all of the contingencies set forth in the contract.  Now the buyers wants an appraisal for his "personal" use.  We are very hesitant to let him do it, for prices have gone up faster in our area than the appraisers can grasp and we got a good offer.

Does the buyer, by law, have the right to get an appraisal now that all contractual obligations have been met?  We think it is a back out clause for them if it does not appraise.  Of course we may get to keep the earnest money but we really want to close.  All contingencies have been signed off and this is a new out of the blue request.

Yes it seems a bit to run off to a hotel,  I offered to pay for their dinner, but they are a family of 5 so that still will be expensive.  No hotel yes dinner.  UGH  but they are good renters so not nearly as bad as the $899 for the water line fix.

The water pipe broke outside the house on my side of the meter so I had it fixed.  The water has to be shut off for 8 hours because the location is saturated with water and needs extra time.  The tenants went to a hotel for the night.  Should I pay for the hotel?