choosing closing date/requesting later closing?

[msmerymac]

Hi guys. I know this board is slow, but I was hoping for some opinions. 

My husband and I are currently considering a particular house. We weren't necessarily looking, even, just stumbled into an open house and found something that ticks basically all of our boxes. It has been on the market for almost 45 days with no price drop. I want to have all of our ducks in a row so that if and when they drop the price, we can make an offer (because who knows if other people are also waiting for that?). One catch - having not planned to buy a house, we're in a lease until February. 

Originally we thought maybe we'd wait to put in an offer after we come back from vacation in early September if the house was still available, but the more I think about it, the more I want to increase our chances of getting the house. 

Closing in, say, mid-December would be ideal. The house is very livable, but before moving in I would want to remove the carpet, probably refinish the wood floors, and paint a few rooms. So at minimum I'd need a few weeks to gather estimates and get the work done (or do it ourselves). Then we could move in our furniture. So if we closed in December we could move in sometime in January. No problem. BUT if we close in, say, September or early October, that's 4 months we either have to pay our rent (along with utilities) or we would have to break the lease. I need to double check the lease, but I believe it's a fee of two times the current rent plus forfeiture of your deposit (which was not much) to break the lease. So it's kind of a wash, either way. The extra money won't break us, of course, but it's about $3500+ that we otherwise wouldn't have to spend.

I know a lot of people are eager to get into a house ASAP or to sell ASAP, but is it even feasible to make an offer and ask that closing is pushed back until a further date? I know it wouldn't be a particularly strong offer, I'm just wondering if it's unheard of. FWIW, I will be asking the realtor we're meeting with on Saturday. 

No one is living in the house, but I would also bet money that there is no money invested in the house that they need to pay off (like a mortgage). Just taxes, insurance and basic utilities as holding costs. 

Additionally, I'd ideally like to ask for money back for closing costs. 

Give it to me!

[minniebee]

You can write the December close date into your offer, but be prepared to negotiate on that. If I was selling, I wouldn't be thrilled to wait 4.5 months to close. You can try anything, though. If the sellers don't have any other offers, and especially if the house has been on the market for awhile, they might be willing to delay closing. However, if there are other interested parties, you could lose out because of the long period to closing.

[stephm0188]

We were in an apartment with six months left on the lease when we found our house. It was vacant and had been on the market nearly a year.
We paid full asking price but asked for closing costs, repairs, and a 60 day escrow. The extended escrow served two purposes... it gave them time to make the repairs, and it cut two months off of our rent. Not paying closing costs saved money as well. We closed May 13 and made our first mortgage payment in July.

We had issues with the apartment and I ended up getting out of the lease with no penalties, but even if I hadn't, we only would have had two months where we would have had to double up.

You may be able to get out of your lease if they can find another tenant to take over.

[kdrake8]

We just purchased a house where the sellers asked for delayed closing. We knew when we walked through in April that they didn't want to close until the beginning of October. It was something we knew about before we even walked through the house the first time. It benefits us bc we can live with my ILs and save more money toward our downpayment.

That being said, you're probably correct that they most likely won't be thrilled about waiting... But if they don't get any other offers they might also be thrilled just to sell it!

[msmerymac]

Thanks! We talked to a real estate agent today and he said that the pace of closings in our area are out to almost 60 days anyway, so if we wanted to close in, say, November, it would probably not be a deal breaker. Additionally, there have been no other offers on the house, so I think we're going to put one in this week!