Best and final: which offer to take?

[TR]

Oh man. That sucks for Buyers #2, but I'd say they need to make a decision now. They saw the house, they either want it or they don't.

Selling sucks. We sold H's house when we left Charleston and it was a very desirable neighborhood, kind of normal market. We had 10-15 showings the first day and multiple offers over list. Long story short, we had two failed contracts within the first couple of weeks and then it sat for a month or so before it finally sold for real.

[deadwing]

That's a tough spot for your buyer, but it's ultimately not your problem. I would tell them they need to make a decision by a deadline (EOD Thurs? noon Fri?) and if they want to move forward, you will permit them another visit to the house after the partner is out of the hospital.

[dancingirl21]

Can the one of them that isn't currently in the hospital do the showing, maybe via FaceTime with the other one? I mean, they've already seen it so what exactly are they looking for in round 2? And this is from someone that saw our current house twice. But I would have for sure trusted my husband to see it a second time with me on video.

[Susie]

Wife and agent are coming tomorrow morning at 9 to see the house as planned. Husband is in the hospital and will FaceTime.

We just weren't willing to take the chance that while we wait for a Monday showing, the other buyers go see another house over the weekend and win a contract on it... and then these buyers see something they don't like in showing #2, and don't keep their offer in. Our payback for being flexible would be that we'd be empty handed and have to start showings all over again. Omg.

[aprilsails]

I’m glad they are doing it themselves. When we bought our first house, we did a quick 20 minute tour during an open house and then DH left that night for a conference in Las Vegas. I bought the house while he was out of town. Did a showing with our buyers agent, inspection, competing offers, everything. It was not fun but certainly doable.

I feel bad for the guy but these things are time sensitive.

[Susie]

Buyer 2's wife saw the house again this morning, still loves it, they are planning to re-offer.  They want to lower their deposit from $10k to $5k because they found out they need to do some work on the rental they're leaving and don't want to be strapped, but all other terms stay the same.  They just want to close before they go on vacation over 4th of July, which is great for us.  We are trying to line up HW floor installation at the new house in June, and a little more cushion on that schedule is helpful.  

Obviously I'd prefer $10k deposit, but it's not a dealbreaker.  I'm also aware that we run a bigger chance with these buyers (vs. the 10% down buyers) of not quite netting the whole $350k in the end, because of an appraisal, and there's a possibility for some VA-related snags that conventional financing might avoid.  There is no perfect buyer here with 20% down and top price.  These buyers feel lower risk overall because there's no real estate sale contingency.  

I feel like my "offer selection spidey sense" is totally broken after the first go-round, but these buyers offered and lost at our neighbor's, then they were the first to schedule a showing at our house, took the first available showing, made the first offer, and made a big jump when we asked for best & final.  They live walking distance to our house.  So they seem like they know what they're buying, and know what they want.  These are all good signs to me.

The first buyer's agent still hasn't sent the release that he's supposed to send (shocker), so our agent is going to do it for him, so we are free to enter into a new contract.  Hopefully this all happens quickly and we can rest easier.

[winecat]

Goodness. I'm stressed for you, Susie! This is nuts. I hope the rest goes smoothly.

[maudefindlay]

Susie I hope things go as smoothly as possible and that these people are your buyers. Also, thanks for sharing so much of this process with us. It is very helpful and I feel like I'm learning a lot.

[dr.girlfriend]

Good luck! And, agree with the previous poster, thanks for sharing!

[thejackpot]

My goodness, so much. I am putting our second property on the market soon and this thread is helpful and scary! Thanks for sharing. I hope they work out and the deal goes in your favor.

[Pilsy]

Godspeed!

[expectantsteelerfan]

Good luck with these buyers, hope it all goes smoothly!

[boiler717]

My agent told me that 90% of the time your first offer is your best offer. I think these guys sound like it will work out! FX

[lacey]

I’m happy that your happy! Your posts already radiate more ease and less stress.

Is the third $350k offer off the table? With the info that the VA offer couple need to reduce their 10k to 5k to account for rental repairs, it doesn’t really seem that they are going to be in a position to go much, if anything, above appraisal and closing costs?

[Susie]

Apr 29, 2021 14:38:48 GMT -5 lacey said:

I’m happy that your happy! Your posts already radiate more ease and less stress.

Is the third $350k offer off the table? With the info that the VA offer couple need to reduce their 10k to 5k to account for rental repairs, it doesn’t really seem that they are going to be in a position to go much, if anything, above appraisal and closing costs?

It’s not off the table, but honestly I ran out of bandwidth for all the what-ifs. What if the appraisal comes in low on the VA buyers? What if the third buyers’ condo sale falls through? (Their financing is contingent on it.) What if either buyer decides to be difficult about some inspection item? (How does one predict that?) We (and all of H&G now, lol) have analyzed it to death. In the end we decided the risk with the VA buyers (low appraisal) is more likely to happen, but the worst case scenario is much more tolerable than the contingent buyers’ worst case scenario.

Right now our agent is sitting on the new contract from the VA buyers, but she can’t send it to us to accept until the original buyers and their agent sign the damn cancellation & release. Their attorney has agreed in writing there was no meeting of the minds/no binding contract, but we still need their sigs, as well as their agent’s. Our agent had to prepare the release even though the buyer’s agent is supposed to, because 2 days after we cancelled, he still hadn’t done it. Everybody on our side has signed, I hope this doesn’t become a needlessly huge thing. Ugh.

[lacey]

It makes a lot of sense that the VA offer risk is a little more likely but also a less severe outcome if it does happen. Hopefully buyer #1 sends sober the cancellation ASAP!

[RockNVoll]

Apr 29, 2021 17:21:05 GMT -5 Susie said:

Apr 29, 2021 14:38:48 GMT -5 lacey said:

I’m happy that your happy! Your posts already radiate more ease and less stress.

Is the third $350k offer off the table? With the info that the VA offer couple need to reduce their 10k to 5k to account for rental repairs, it doesn’t really seem that they are going to be in a position to go much, if anything, above appraisal and closing costs?

It’s not off the table, but honestly I ran out of bandwidth for all the what-ifs. What if the appraisal comes in low on the VA buyers? What if the third buyers’ condo sale falls through? (Their financing is contingent on it.) What if either buyer decides to be difficult about some inspection item? (How does one predict that?) We (and all of H&G now, lol) have analyzed it to death. In the end we decided the risk with the VA buyers (low appraisal) is more likely to happen, but the worst case scenario is much more tolerable than the contingent buyers’ worst case scenario.

Right now our agent is sitting on the new contract from the VA buyers, but she can’t send it to us to accept until the original buyers and their agent sign the damn cancellation & release. Their attorney has agreed in writing there was no meeting of the minds/no binding contract, but we still need their sigs, as well as their agent’s. Our agent had to prepare the release even though the buyer’s agent is supposed to, because 2 days after we cancelled, he still hadn’t done it. Everybody on our side has signed, I hope this doesn’t become a needlessly huge thing. Ugh.

This is insane and would have me absolutely enraged! I hope this gets cleared up soon so you can move on. What a roller coaster.

[dutchgirl678]

That is a lot to handle! I am glad it seems to be working out with buyers #2. It sounds like they will be a much better fit. Hopefully the situation will be resolved soon and you can move forward!

[KellyEasterbrook]

I appreciate the updates! If you'd like some positive VA Loan appraisal anecdotes -- our friend bought a similar house (4 bedrooms/2 bath) in our neighborhood in 2016 for $245K. We bought our house (3 bedroom/2 bath...so smaller square footage, but our lot is a little bigger) only three years later for $410K. The market here as been nuts for awhile. Obviously, we were incredibly concerned about the VA appraisal, but it came in at $415K or $425K (I can't remember exactly). Similar houses are now going for $650-700K and I'd be shocked if the VA appraisals are keeping up with that, but maybe if you're in a different area of the country where the increase hasn't been quite as extreme, the appraisal might be okay.

Good luck!! I'm crossing my fingers that this new transaction goes smoothly for you.

[Susie]

According to our now-cancelled buyers' attorney, the first round buyers have signed the release, but their agent is having a family emergency and can't sign.  Of course.  She gave us the go-ahead (by email) to accept a new contract with a contingency for the release, and said we should have the release Monday.  I'm so fed up with all of this - I'm sympathetic to family emergencies, but this guy is BEC at this point, and you can DocuSign (which is how we're doing all of this) on your phone in two seconds.  But anyway.  The upshot is that we just signed to accept buyer #2.  I genuinely hope they're going to be excited, I want to feel good about who we sell to.  FX it goes smoothly!

[Susie]

Ugh.  Today is the last day of attorney review with our new buyers.  Late afternoon today, we got their requested changes.  They ALSO have asked for a contingency that they can walk if the house appraises for more than $5k under contract price, i.e. if it appraises for less than $345k.  WTF is this!?  This comes after they asked to reduce their deposit from $10k (original offer) to $5k (revised offer) but assured that they had the additional $5k, just preferred not to spend it if they didn't absolutely have to.  We accepted with the idea that they had a $5k deposit, had another $5k in reserve if needed, and that as long as the house appraises for $335k, we'd only need to make a seller's concession of $5k, which seemed reasonable.  Now this BS.

We're countering with asking minus $10k, and that we get an opportunity to offer a seller's concession before they can walk.  Otherwise we could be up a creek with two houses and a walking buyer in several weeks.  We're closing on our purchase in 3 weeks.

HOW HOW HOW are we having such a hard time in such a "seller's market"?  I'm so, so frustrated.

This week we ALSO found out that our kindergartener is not going to be able to transfer from the elementary school associated with our old address to the one for our new address this fall for 1st grade because it's "full," but she will be transferred in Sept 2022 for 2nd grade.  (We are moving within the same school district.)  I've been in touch with the registrar about this move since 3/30, and this just came up this week.  This fucks all my before/after care registrations, which were tied to school site.  

I am never, never, never moving again.  This has been so unbelievably difficult.

[macmars45]

I'm so sorry Susie. That is some bullshit.
I had more issues buying than selling, but I'm with you about moving. My next move will be in 20-40 years to downsize. I refuse to move again besides that.

[lilac05]

I’m so sorry this has been such a stressful nightmare. Hopefully it’ll all be behind you soon and it will all have been worth it.

I wonder if situations like yours aren’t more common that we hear about. People like to talk about how quickly they got insane offers, but I do wonder how many times things get changed after appraisals are done. I know in some markets it seems like things run smoothly like that often, but in these markets that are new to bidding wars and over-appraisal offers, I bet it’s more common than we think.

[ktw]

May 5, 2021 16:11:46 GMT -5 Susie said:

Ugh.  Today is the last day of attorney review with our new buyers.  Late afternoon today, we got their requested changes.  They ALSO have asked for a contingency that they can walk if the house appraises for more than $5k under contract price, i.e. if it appraises for less than $345k.  WTF is this!?  This comes after they asked to reduce their deposit from $10k (original offer) to $5k (revised offer) but assured that they had the additional $5k, just preferred not to spend it if they didn't absolutely have to.  We accepted with the idea that they had a $5k deposit, had another $5k in reserve if needed, and that as long as the house appraises for $335k, we'd only need to make a seller's concession of $5k, which seemed reasonable.  Now this BS.

We're countering with asking minus $10k, and that we get an opportunity to offer a seller's concession before they can walk.  Otherwise we could be up a creek with two houses and a walking buyer in several weeks.  We're closing on our purchase in 3 weeks.

HOW HOW HOW are we having such a hard time in such a "seller's market"?  I'm so, so frustrated.

This week we ALSO found out that our kindergartener is not going to be able to transfer from the elementary school associated with our old address to the one for our new address this fall for 1st grade because it's "full," but she will be transferred in Sept 2022 for 2nd grade.  (We are moving within the same school district.)  I've been in touch with the registrar about this move since 3/30, and this just came up this week.  This fucks all my before/after care registrations, which were tied to school site.  

I am never, never, never moving again.  This has been so unbelievably difficult.

This is exactly how I felt in the fall. Selling in a sellers market should not have been as hard as it was. In the end, it worked out ok, and we made an astounding amount of money, so it was worth it. But, so stressful. Everyone asks me if building a house is stressful - it’s really nothing compared to what selling was.

Any chance it will appraise high enough given recent comps? I was worried ours wouldn’t. The buyers didn’t tell us what it appraised for, but it was enough.

[nicolewi]

I'm sorry, this sounds very, very stressful! The school thing is ridiculous. I would be super mad if they can't find a way to fit her in. How can they possibly know if they are "full"? Don't kids move in and out over summer?

[pumpkin]

I'm so sorry Susie.
I can only imagine how frustrating this all has been and these requests seem ridiculous. I understand appraisals and all that, but this is how everything goes up and what the market price is and what the market will bare!

I hope it all works out!!

[Susie]

May 5, 2021 17:00:52 GMT -5 ktw said:

This is exactly how I felt in the fall. Selling in a sellers market should not have been as hard as it was. In the end, it worked out ok, and we made an astounding amount of money, so it was worth it. But, so stressful. Everyone asks me if building a house is stressful - it’s really nothing compared to what selling was.

Any chance it will appraise high enough given recent comps? I was worried ours wouldn’t. The buyers didn’t tell us what it appraised for, but it was enough.

Our agent thinks it will appraise, but she was overconfident about the appraisal on our purchase so I don't trust it.  She thought it'd be no problem, and it came in $15k shy of contract price (although $5k above asking).  So it's hard to trust.  I fully expect the same scenario to happen here, landing in between asking and contract price.  Problem is, that's a $25k range, and we had 5 people offer within that range.  How tf do you pick between offers when nobody actually means the price they offer?

I'm so tired of thinking about it, stressing about it, and talking about it and going round and round about this stupid appraisal issue.

[Susie]

May 5, 2021 17:55:29 GMT -5 nicolewi said:

I'm sorry, this sounds very, very stressful! The school thing is ridiculous. I would be super mad if they can't find a way to fit her in. How can they possibly know if they are "full"? Don't kids move in and out over summer?

No freaking clue.  I mean, we're buying the house from a family that has 2 elementary age kids who attend that school, and who are leaving the district!  How is this a problem??!

[heygrey]

May 5, 2021 17:55:29 GMT -5 nicolewi said:

I'm sorry, this sounds very, very stressful! The school thing is ridiculous. I would be super mad if they can't find a way to fit her in. How can they possibly know if they are "full"? Don't kids move in and out over summer?

From my experience working in an elementary school... there is a cap to how many students we can have. Classrooms available x class caps. Priority is given first to current student’s siblings, then to new registers based on date/time of registration. (My district opens up registration in early Feb and some schools fill their kindy lists within an hour.) Then we have a wait list that is finalized in the last weeks of summer based on students leaving. The students will be accommodated somewhere in the district, but it may not be the school in their catchment.

[ellipses84]

I’m sorry this has been such a hassle. I’d contact the admin and later the principle of the school, as soon as you can give them proof of your new address. Check in with them near the beginning of the summer and the end of the summer, to see if a spot opens up.

In our district they have to guarantee a spot to all kids living in their zone, which means they sometimes have to rebalance teachers in the first quarter of the school year which can also suck. We moved out of our zone mid-year and had issues making sure both kids were enrolled at the same school next year. Different scenario, but I learned that the on site admin have a lot of power to “fix” things, where the registrar just sees us as a number and the admin said they would go to the principle if needed (I’d originally messaged her but didn’t get a timely response). We had aftercare applications tied to one school, too.