[Kroze]

I'm closing on my home in a couple days and the seller refuses so I can do my final walk through and says after closing they still need time to find a place. What shall I do, I'v waited for so long and currently living with family for past couple months. I'm ready to move in, and can't take the chance of walking away because I don't have money to throw away on getting another inspection and appraisal. What can I really do?

[Kroze]

I'm closing on my home in a couple days and the seller refuses to vacate so I can do my final walk through, and says after closing they don't know when they would be moving because they will have to find a place to move. What shall I do? I've been waiting for this home for so long and I'm currently living with family until I close. I can't afford to cancel because don't have money to throw away for another inspection and appraisal. I'm kind of thinking that they knew all along that they didn't want to sell, just trying to stay longer without paying anything. What should or can I do about this drama?

[Fr_Chuck]

You can't afford not to at least hold off, refuse to close until they are out.

Do you know how long it can take to evict and the costs of going to court. Next if after closing they damage the home you want to pay to fix it, or sue in court.

Inform your agent that unless they are out of the house by closing date you are finding them in default of the contract and you will either need a new date at a lower price of course or you will merely walk away.

If they want to sell their home, they will do something, if not, you will save more by walking away, Throwing good money after bad is not going to make it better.

Also if they will not close, you sue them for the cost of the inspection and appraisal of course also, make sure they are aware of that

[Kroze]

Thanks Chuck, I'm just not sure they want to sell because they're not from this country and probably feel they have nothing to lose. I found them to be very nice people. But thanks for the advice, I'll find out next week!

[Fr_Chuck]

I did one I will always remember ( I have bought and sold dozens of houses over the years) and I am a licensed real estate agent.

Hopefully you are using a real estate agent, let them be the bad guy, but at the end of the day, remember you could have to spend 1000's fixing up a damaged home. Or what if they took all sorts of things that was suppose to stay with home, you can do little but sue them in court and even if you win, have a hard time getting the money from a judgement.

At the worst if you have to have the home, have a large sum of money put into escrow at closing that the owner can not get, until you have taken possession at a set date.
Prior to closing state how much money comes out of that escrow for every week late moving out, and that any and all damages are paid from it before they get it.
Of course if the sellers refuse, then you have to walk away, remember if they refuse to let you be protected, they are planning on being wrong in the move

[ScottGem]

First its not a good idea to piggyback your question on someone else's. This can lead to confusion. You should start a new thread. So I've moved your question to its own thread. I also found the second post and merged them.

It's not uncommon to not take possession after closing. Balancing the timing of selling and buying is often not easy. I had to wait a couple of months to take possession on my first house.

What we did was write into the contract that the sellers would pay rent until they were able to move out. The amount of the rental was set to cover my mortgage plus something for the inconvenience. You can make a provision to escalate the amount of rent according to a set schedule as incentive to get them to move.

The problem is, if they refuse, your only recourse is to cancel the contract. You should be able to recoup the cost of the appraisal and inspection since they are the ones causing the cancellation of the contract. Of course some of this depends on the wording of the contract.