Best and final: which offer to take?

[dutchgirl678]

Yay, that is excellent news! I'm so glad you won't have to worry about the buyers having to lower their offer because of the appraisal.

I hope you can get the mold issue resolved. That is so strange that the previous owners said they had it fixed and then the bathroom fan was still sending moisture up into the attic. But I am glad it is not a huge issue and you should be able to sell your home to these buyers without too much hassle.

[libbygrl109]

Yay! Finally some excellent news! Hope it’s smooth sailing from here for you.

[steph2008]

I'm a lurker, also in this shitty market, so I was definitely following along. Glad to hear you have good news!!

[aprilsails]

Amazing! I am so glad the house appraised and I hope you get the contract finalized quickly and smoothly now.

[Susie]

We got tired of waiting for our buyers to make an ask -- it would usually be done through their attorney, and he seems to be on permanent vacation -- so we offered yesterday to ok their appraisal language (since it's moot anyway if the house has appraised for contract price) and to pay for the $3400 remediation that 2008 Contractor estimated in advance of closing, no seller's concessions/credits, to resolve everything and get us on firm ground.

We sent it to their attorney, but bcc'ed both agents.  Lol that the response we got came from their agent.  I guess everyone realized their attorney is bogging this down.

They countered asking for $3700 in a credit against sale price, rather than us doing the work for them.

1) Excellent - at a minimum, we are very close.

2) They're doing VA funding.  I was under the impression that VA funding doesn't allow the purchase of a house with a major issue, even with a credit from sellers.  I've asked our agent to confirm, but does anyone know?  I thought we HAD to pay OOP to fix any issues before closing, rather than offer a credit.

I have no personal preference as to how it's mechanically handled, but I don't want to agree to a credit and then get up to closing and realize we have a problem!

The issue is that they want to use their own guy for the work.  He has estimated $3995 for a more extensive job, which is fine.  But we aren't going to pay for some of the items on their list (that are part of the $3995), like disconnecting and sealing the whole house fan that they apparently don't want.  We really can't have them pay for (in whole or in part) work on the house before they own it, but it's cheaper for them if it's all done at once.  It's all very messy.  The credit is clearly the tidiest solution, but I'm afraid with VA funding it won't work.

At least we're close! 

[Susie]

Just today we finalllllly got the appraisal report on our sale.  OMG, this has dragged.  After all the stress, it did indeed appraise for exactly contract price!  The comps on it completely mystify me.  The appraisal completely omits a sale on our street about a week before the appraisal (which is fine because it was low), and all comps are from Oct/Nov 2020.  But I do not care how he did it because he got to the number we needed, and the buyer's lender is content.  Whew.

Still waiting on an answer about credit vs. remediation prior to closing, which I would have thought was a pretty straightforward ask.  At this pace I'm feeling doubtful we're going to close on time (3 weeks from tomorrow), but I will take forward progress.

[boiler717]

Jun 3, 2021 11:02:29 GMT -5 Susie said:

Just today we finalllllly got the appraisal report on our sale.  OMG, this has dragged.  After all the stress, it did indeed appraise for exactly contract price!  The comps on it completely mystify me.  The appraisal completely omits a sale on our street about a week before the appraisal (which is fine because it was low), and all comps are from Oct/Nov 2020.  But I do not care how he did it because he got to the number we needed, and the buyer's lender is content.  Whew.

Still waiting on an answer about credit vs. remediation prior to closing, which I would have thought was a pretty straightforward ask.  At this pace I'm feeling doubtful we're going to close on time (3 weeks from tomorrow), but I will take forward progress.

Our VA buyer loan required us to do work (termite on deck) on one thing but we did a credit for the rest.
When we purchased, we had optional things for the electrician. He did it all in one visit but billed the sellers for the required things and us for the optional things.

[Susie]

Jun 3, 2021 12:38:03 GMT -5 boiler717 said:

Jun 3, 2021 11:02:29 GMT -5 Susie said:

Just today we finalllllly got the appraisal report on our sale.  OMG, this has dragged.  After all the stress, it did indeed appraise for exactly contract price!  The comps on it completely mystify me.  The appraisal completely omits a sale on our street about a week before the appraisal (which is fine because it was low), and all comps are from Oct/Nov 2020.  But I do not care how he did it because he got to the number we needed, and the buyer's lender is content.  Whew.

Still waiting on an answer about credit vs. remediation prior to closing, which I would have thought was a pretty straightforward ask.  At this pace I'm feeling doubtful we're going to close on time (3 weeks from tomorrow), but I will take forward progress.

Our VA buyer loan required us to do work (termite on deck) on one thing but we did a credit for the rest.
When we purchased, we had optional things for the electrician. He did it all in one visit but billed the sellers for the required things and us for the optional things.

If we have to remediate prior to closing, this is probably what we'll end up proposing, since they have some optional things they want done.  It's a small risk for them to agree to be billed for work on a property they don't yet own, but if it's their funding that requires the work to be done before closing it seems like the most cost efficient way to do it.  It's not like we're going to back out of selling; they probably know through our agents that we have already closed on our purchase and have started the moving process.

[Susie]

2.5 months later, here we are:  the final update!  

Our sale just closed this afternoon.  Everything went smoothly.  We sold it for the full contract price of $350k, less a $3700 credit for mold remediation.  Under normal circumstances we would have had to remediate before closing rather than do the credit, but their attorney worked with their bank (USAA) to cite covid as exigent circumstances to allow the credit instead.  That was what they wanted, and it was fine with us.  

Their VA funding caused us a lot of worry, but in the end no actual impacts.  The house appraised for exactly contract price, and they were ready to close on time (they actually gave us a few extra days to accommodate our floor finishing/move out timeline).  There were no surprises or extra repairs due to the VA funding.  Everything took longer in the stress-phase (i.e. inspection/appraisal phase) but in the end all was good.

We moved into our new house on Monday, finished cleaning up yesterday, they had their walk through this morning, and we closed this afternoon.  We are living among all manner of boxes and it's been a super stressful and exhausting few days, but we're done!

[libbygrl109]

Congratulations! So glad you are able to fully enjoy your new home.

[heygrey]

Awesome! I am so happy for you that this chapter is finished and everything worked out favourably despite the high stress.

[aprilsails]

Congratulations! I’m so glad that the final steps went smoothly and that you are (somewhat) settled into your new home!

[expectantsteelerfan]

Congrats! We moved into our new house last Wed. and are trying to get our old house listed by next week. Moving is SO stressful! Wishing you all the best in your new home!

[aspentosh]

So glad that chapter is finally closed for you. What a headache.

Did you decide to bring that tree, or do you have too much going on that it wasn't worth the extra brain power?

[Susie]

Jul 1, 2021 7:34:58 GMT -5 aspentosh said:

Did you decide to bring that tree, or do you have too much going on that it wasn't worth the extra brain power?

We ended up leaving it behind.    As a compromise we took cuttings from it, and we have 8 in pots.  We're hoping at least one successfully roots and eventually thrives so that someday we will have it again.  The closing was friendly enough that they might even let us come back to try again if it doesn't work this go-round.  

The landscaping changes we have planned are too extensive to pick a location for it now, and frankly the yard in its current overgrown condition is a little overwhelming.  I was also worried about our ability to successfully do the transplant this time of year.  And I ran out of bandwidth.

We did transplant 2 rhubarb plants, and in pots we have a sage, and two previously rooted propagations of two other hydrangeas.  All that pretty much maxed me out.