Going crazy waiting for buyers to respond to inspection

[expectantsteelerfan]

We put our house on the market July 9 (already moved into our new house).  We had over 20 showings that weekend, but only got one offer on the following Monday for below asking.  The market has slowed down a LOT in our area (there are now over 90 houses for sale in our school district...when we were looking there were only ~35) and most houses are sitting for a while and having price reductions.  Really updated houses in 4 bed 2 bath $400K range are still sometimes going over asking with bidding wars, but ours is a 4 bed 2 bath fixer-upper and we listed for $325K .  We had 2 verbal offers for under $300K, but the only formal offer was $315K.  We countered at $320K, they countered back at $317.5K, and we accepted.

They had the inspection done last Sunday and we haven't heard anything yet and I'm going insane waiting.  We did get a copy of the inspection report, and there were 4 major things flagged and a ton of minor things.  We are willing to work with the buyers on the major stuff for sure, but I'm a nervous wreck worrying that they are just going to walk away or something without even asking for anything.  

They were supposed to respond within 5 days and that has passed, and their realtor told ours that hopefully they will have a response in the next few days.  

I feel like this market has wreaked such havoc on my emotions and stress level.  Before we started looking, we had assumed that finding a house would be the fun/easy part, and that selling our house was going to be tough and stressful.  But then the market went crazy and finding a house was so hard and we lost out on a few that we loved.  We increased our budget because that was the only way we were going to get something we loved, and we did, hoping that we'd also have a much easier time making more on the sale of our old house.  And I keep trying to remember that if the market hadn't gone crazy, we would have listed for MUCH less and probably had a harder time selling.  But if these buyers walk away and we have to go back to doing showings, who knows what the market is going to do in the next month or so?  I just want to be done with this house so badly (closing with these buyers is supposed to be Aug. 30th).  We would be fine financially carrying both houses for a while if we needed to, but the uncertainty is seriously killing me!

[maudefindlay]

Ugh, that stinks. Do you think maybe they have offered on another house and are waiting to see if it is accepted? I just don't understand going over the 5 days without sharing more info. It seems like from multiple others on the board that markets in various areas are slowing down. I would start viewing this that at this point these people might be blocking you from other offers and would give a day and time to respond or your deal is off.

[jlt19]

So what happens after the five days, like do you keep any of the earnest money or anything? I'm just curious b/c why is there even a "deadline" if it doesn't mean anything and no one is going to follow it anyway? We went under contract (to sell) yesterday am and they've booked the inspection for Thursday. They have 10 days to respond after that, but per the contract, can't really ask for anything. Now, they could walk if there's something massive or too big, and we'd do what we could to work with them b/c it'll keep coming up, but the nitpicky stuff can't be asked for. We did the same thing with the house we're supposed to be buying and closing on next week.

[ellipses84]

Try not to stress. We had similar happen when we sold our house a few years ago. The buyers were wouldn’t accept our offer of fixing a couple things and offering a credit for some others. None of them were major enough to to have a sale fall through. They wanted us to fix every little thing ourselves, DH had already moved out of state and I was working / @solo parenting so I didn’t feel like I had time for that. They pulled out of the sale and I later found out they’d put an offer on a house a few blocks away before they even declined our counteroffer. Obviously they wanted out of the sale. My realtor thought they were ridiculous and apparently they were a total PITA to work with for the other sellers too (the house happened to be the next door neighbor of a good friend so I heard all the gossip).

The house was on the market a few more weeks and eventually sold for a little less. I was so upset because their inspection time wasted the first half of the summer and the market had cooled, plus it delayed our move. Having the inspection and time allowed me to hire a handyman and DIY some of the inspection report stuff so it didn’t come up again and the final sale was totally smooth. We made a decent profit in the end so I wasn’t too disappointed because it’s all like Monopoly money until the sale is complete.

[expectantsteelerfan]

I had assumed that they hadn't responded yet because they were trying to get quotes on fixing some of the stuff (the biggest issue is that there are cracks in the cement block walls in the unfinished part of the basement and the garage. The inspection recommended having a specialist look at it to determine if there is movement near the cracks or not...this is a common thing in our area, the cracks were there when we moved in and we had a specialist look and they said no movement, if there is movement now then wall anchors or straps will be recommended, and we are prepared for them to ask for that possibly).

But now I'm even more worried they are still looking at other houses and waiting to hear back from other offers, which is something I hadn't even considered.

I guess since they hadn't responded within the 5 days in the contract, we could decide to walk away right now (we don't get their hand money though I don't think), but since we don't have any other offers we're going to give them to the end of the week to at least communicate what is going on.

[Susie]

Ugh, I'm sorry.  We felt so many of these things.  We had one major on our inspection (on the selling side) and a bunch of minors, plus the appraisal concerns, and it was so so stressful.  I knew it was stressful in the moment, but after we closed and the weight lifted off I realized exactly how bad it had been.  This house better be it, because I do not want to do this ever again!!

Is your agent able to feel out their agent for what's going on at all?  That was the one saving grace for us.  Our agent knew theirs, and so even as deadlines passed and things didn't feel like they were moving forward, we had constant assurance from their agent to ours, to us, that the buyers still wanted to work through this, they still want to buy, they're working on XYZ, etc.

[rubytue]

I’m our market, and with our contracts (in MD) if their 5-day contingency period expires, then that’s it. They lost their right to ask for anything (or walk away). I’m surprised you agent is saying a few more days when it’s past the 5 days.

[expectantsteelerfan]

PHEW they finally responded, and they were trying to get quotes, which is what took so long. They are asking for a decent amount, but it is within the realm of what we were willing to do I think, so hopefully we can come to an agreement and move forward (waiting for dh to get home to discuss).

[expectantsteelerfan]

They accepted what we offered! Woohoo! I'm so so so so so relieved!

[jlt19]

expectantsteelerfan, that awesome!

Ours for our current house was yesterday afternoon and I freaked when I got home b/c there's a little flag in my yard with writing on it that says "End of belly in 4" PVC 13'" And then a piece of tape on our walkway that says "Start of belly in 4" PVC 12'5""

So I sent a picture to my realtor and said "this doesn't look good". She reached out to the other agent and he said "it all went well! They were just curious about how long ago the different decks were built and the last time the HVAC had been serviced". He mentioned NOTHING about the sewer pipe!

Now, they still have to get the report but surely they would have heard about anything big while here. So, I answered their questions and I guess now we wait?