AmerLisa

But of course she is still paying the bills on the house and its been for sale for 13 months and this is the first offer, in a buyer's market, no less.

Ray

I know whats the best thing to do .. I just would not ...

made of kent

negotiate, but I doubt they will play ball after all they have seen how long your place has been on the market, but be firm on the not paying other costs we had the same thing in the UK a few months ago, buyers still interested after 8 months but not willing to move on price, we had had no other offers, It was making us ill, I was on antidepressants and hubby not far behind, to the point he thought repossession was an option! fortunately my anti D's had kicked in, we made £4000 over the mortgage BUT we lost £47,500 on the buying price and we had spent in 3 years £40,000 + doing it up,
BUT that said, you will buy a house cheaper and as I said to hubby we are ill and it isn't worth the money! move on lesion learnt, that said we had a 60% deposit, you need to cover the mortgage, and don't go with the cover cost the minute in the UK, I excepted their offer they will live with the fact that the en-suit water was not working? don't know why? and the new shower in the family bath room only gives cold water! do know why, stiffed by plumber though I was out of the country so why bother, aunt at plumb base! she heard him and reported back, also kitchen not done to spec! cousins girlfriend reported back to me on that, she works at Grahams, it is often joked my family are the Thanet Mafia.
any way most stuff put right for free after I did the Thanet Mafia on them, we don't need guns, just very big family, in the building trade, and years before they where all professionals, never underestimate my family
also the bills and mortgage where getting us in debt

penguinsix

So you are $3,300 apart.

Look at how much interest you will pay over the next XX months on your house. When you calculate how long it will take to pay $3,300 in interest (XX months), then ask yourself can we sell for the higher price in XX months to a new buyer?

If your asking price is $155k and you are looking to find a new buyer, you can expect they will be offering quite a bit less than that, just based on the general idea of negotiations.

While you have slid down a slope of lower prices, and it does probably piss you off quite a bit, the real question to ask is what is going to get you the most money out of this place in the next XX months.

dunroving

If you sell it to them, don't forget to leave a dead fish in the crawl space before you hand over the keys. If you can do the same with the realtor's car manifold, do that too.

Contingency repair bill: $1,000
Realtor fees: $9,000
Attorney fees: $2,000
Peace of mind: Priceless.

dunroving

But seriously, I agree with previous comments to ask the realtor to share your pain. If she is so adamantly on the side of the buyer (by d*cking you around regarding the contingency repair bill), I'd ask her to drop her commission by the same amount.

Bob

Aye, dropping the sale price a good few grand doesn't really affect the realtor as they aren't really going to lose much money, well they aren't going to get much more for their troubles by going to bat for you, but no sale and they get nothing so chances are they'll be more willing to bite the expense as a tax right off to get the sale than lose the commission entirely.

Alternatively, stick the house on ebay and stick the realtor

MsElui

id say they have ample evidence that you have kept the house well maintained over time and have acted upon previous 'issues'. Id say no to the £1000 clause and advise them to close quickly so there is less time for any repairs to be required. (or offer just $500)

CelticRover

What about providing the fairly typical one year homebuyer's warranty for less than $400 instead?

cindyabs

I saw that on one of the HGTV shows this weekend-can't remember which one.

It was a similar dilemma.

Tarkak9

I hope that you have found meeting of the minds and are under contract. Its a tough market.
There is a saying in the industry that your 1st offer is usually the best offer. One needs to weigh up the merits etc of what was presented. However, that's not to say to never push the envelope... if you don't ask, you don't get - just as what the buyer is asking of you, you can certainly ask of them to pay a little more; ie given that they've presented price and terms, you know what they're willing to commit to so you can quickly change your minds and approach them again if your counter isn't sucessful.

"As-is"- you could counter with that, it can scare buyers b/c they think what is wrong with the house. Reassure them that and show where you've done many repairs and improvements and currently not interested with performing any more repairs on the property. If you give 1k now, I bet they're going to return with asking more stuff at inspection. Either way, they're going to threaten to walk over inspection unless you change your mind... if that's the case, they're not the buyer of your house per se. Besides, with an as-is clause, you've declared up front your stance on repairs so it shouldn't come to a surprise to them that your not inclined to budge on inspection items. Be careful with this clause b/c it can be interpreted 2 ways so spell it out how you want it. If you give the 1k credit now, confine it to that so that they're isn't additional negotiations at inspection, i.e. your 1k now is your resolution.. period.

Their loan, can they lock and commit now to their loan w/as not be able to wiggle out due to the loan not being to the buyer's liking? I am not familiar with FL procedures.. here in CO a buyer can terminate upto a certain date if the loan isn't to the liking of the buyer based on their subjective discretion... that's why one needs to tighten the looseness of the provision.

Hope it has worked out for you and now you can move forward to your next stage of things!