Thursday, July 02, 2009

grrrr

If you saw my Twitter last night, you saw that our buyers backed out. FOR NO GOOD REASON. The having no good reason thing is really pissing me off, but I guess its better than having a problem we have to remedy. We had the inspection yesterday morning and the inspector actually told the buyers and both agents that it was one of his best inspections ever, and the house was in excellent condition. The buyers came with a whole entourage of folks, though, cousins and grandparents and uncles and milkmen and who knows who else.

One of the cousins, in particular, kept arguing with the inspector over random things. She said she didn't like the way the furnace LOOKED, even though the inspector insisted the furnace was in great condition. My broker says she kept insisting the newer furnaces were better, to which the inspector said that certainly newer furnaces have some improvements, but those are improvements, not problems. She also complained about one spot of squeakiness in the hardwood floors outside of our upstairs bathroom and said she thought we should have to REPLACE those floors. I should go upstairs right now and take a picture of our floors, because although the entire house is hardwood floors, they were covered in carpet for the vast majority of this home's life, and every realtor who came into this house has commented on their excellent condition.

Besides these two non-problems, the inspector found that there were carpenter ants in the garden (!!!I'm not sure what to comment on bugs in the garden!!!), trees coming too close to some of the electrical wires, a garage door without a sensor for children (would go back up if a child gets in the way), and a chimney without a cap. All of these together, even if we were to take care of all of them, would probably total out to less than $1000. The buyers, however, asked for $20,000 off the price of the house because they want me to replace the furnace and replace the part of the hallway floor that creaks.

Their own broker told them they were making a terrible mistake, and she was unbelievably apologetic to us. She kept telling them they would never have a better inspection than this one, but when I told them to shove their requests, they (unsurprisingly) decided to back out. Sigh. Back on the roller coaster.

We kept our appointments today to see some houses, and of course as is always the case, today I saw several houses I loved and on which I would happily have made an offer. Even worse, a house on our dream street in our current town is on for a much higher price than we can afford, but they said they would happily consider a lower offer from us because the seller is in a situation where she needs to sell. I can't stop thinking about that house, and worrying about losing out on an awesome opportunity.

At the same time, though, Josh and I are reconsidering our plan to put it back on the market and entertaining the idea of staying in the house for another year or more. We need a bigger house, but now that we've pseudo-finished the basement, we have enough space to stay if or until I get pregnant again. We don't HAVE to move, at least not now.

We have more showings scheduled, another open house, and who knows what will happen. I'm frustrated and angry and disappointed, but it can't all be sunshine and roses, I know.

3 comments:

Stacy said...

Please know that you a contractual right to KEEP their earnest money! they cannot back out just because. This happened to me two years ago, I talked to my realator and got their $1,000

HUGS its so stressful

kathy a. said...

oh, how stressful! it sounds like they were getting a little too much "advice" from the entourage, and perhaps thinking they could bully you into a sizeable reduction in price. good riddance, but it wouldn't be totally surprising if they came back with a better offer after looking around some more. any house is going to have a few things that are less than ideal to a family's taste, but it sounds like your house is in great condition!

Angie said...

I was so hoping this would be painless and the closing would go without a hitch.