Imagine this scenario. Your clients just sold their home, the buyer's mortgage has gone through, all contingencies have been removed from the contract and they are ready to close escrow, but there is a last minute situation.
The situation is that even though the buyer's signed the contract to purchase your clients home they loved everything except the kitchen because they felt it was too dark. At the time it wasn't a major issue because they felt that the problem could be resolved with the installation of a skylight.
In most typical home purchases the buyers and sellers first focus on handling all the major contingencies such as inspections, financing, and quite possibly the selling of another home.
Once those have been covered the buyer's now turn their attention to improvements they would like to make to their new home.
Unfortunately, with this sale, what seemed like an easy solution to the dark kitchen situation turned into a disaster the week before closing. When the roofers came out to provide a bid on the job of installing a skylight over the kitchen they indicated in the quote that there was no problem doing the job, however the roofer also noted that in order to do the job the roof would have to be replaced.
When the buyer's contracted to purchase the home it was felt that as long as the roof would last for many more years they would buy the home. At this point they really weren't sure if they wanted the house now or not.
In situations like these time is of the essence and all parties involved; the sellers, the buyers, and their agents need to start working on coming up with a solution to the problem. This will mean that you, the seller's agent and the buyer's agent, will have to free up the time needed in order to help find a solution.
Here is where having a positive attitude and a great working relationship between you and the other agent will come in very handy. The more solution ideas that can be found the better the situation will be. Understand that you are usually dealing with a couple of issues at this point which are:
- The first is finding out what options there are available to remedy the situation. Can the roof work as is? Can the skylights be installed satisfactorily?
- The money is the second issue. What will it cost to find an agreeable solution to this situation? Can the buyers and the sellers share in some of this cost if the only possible solution is to install a new roof?
Don't forget that the buyers did not sign the contract to buy the home with a new roof. The buyers will benefit from the new roof for many years after the sale is complete.
Both parties should evaluate their time, effort and the money it will take to solve this dilemma. To start all over again at this stage of the game would be very costly considering that money has already been spent on getting financing, inspecting the property as well as moving plans.
There is always a time when it's time to call it quits, but this should be avoided whenever possible. One way to do that is through a tightly written purchase contract that anticipates situations like this. By having purchase contract written this way, even after full disclosures of all defects are found with the property, there are remedies in place that can quickly and easily handle unfortunate situations late in the purchase process.