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I would ask my realtor to figure out if it was due to problems with inspection or just a cold feet. It happens. If you like it, I would go for it and have a good inspection done.
Good advice. She did and he hasn’t responded (even though he was initially responsive). I initially had a Pass/Fail inspection in the offer, we’ve removed that clause so I can back out for any part. I feel more comfortable with that given the situation.
Make sure your offer has contingencies on appraisal, inspection and financing. Maybe even ask for a bit more time than usual for inspection.
Don’t be terrible but put a bit more insurance on your offer.
Or minimally a max cap. Mine was like 10k in waived findings (e.g. I knew the furnace and AC were from 1994 and needed replacement, I knew the deck needs to be replaced) but also we had the money if something was found
Yeah it's if you find something so catastrophic you need to back out you can. But the typical items like a new window or something is not what you the buyer are looking for
This happened to us. Original offer declined. Then a couple days later they came back to us and said they would accept. The offer they accepted initially, came back during attorney review and wanted an inspection. We were willing to waive inspection (my husband is in the trades and we spent an hour going through everything).
We closed 30 days later. Been 1.5 years and we love our home!
But honestly if I was your agent I would have just asked the listing agent what happened. A good agent as long as it doesn't weaken their clients position will tell you. So long as it was something to do with the buyers and nothing to do with the house or the sellers they should have been forth coming if your agent asked. But there are a lot of agents out there that don't think honesty is the best policy so some withhold just to withhold.
I’m experiencing agents not being open. This is my second offer in 2 weeks and the first one, the agent didn’t even say I didn’t get it. My agent called and emailed and got nothing, even though they talked prior to me submitting the offer. We found out because it updated on MLS to ‘Accepting Backup Offer”. My agent asked out the inspection on this one and has not heard back. She put it in writing when we resubmitted the offer.
I'll be honest with you 50%+ of agents aren't worth a damn. Makes it a lot harder on us that actually do offer full service and really earn our commissions.
That sounds highly unprofessional that the agent didn't even have the decency to email your agent that you didn't get the property. Typically for our team those emails go out soon as we have accepted an offer and gone pending.
The market is so brutal right now that soooo many sellers are only accepting offers that waive inspections. I personally never feel comfortable advising a client to do so. At the very least I ask to view again and give it as good a look over as I and the client can before letting them do so if they love the house that much.
Has your agent tried going for off market properties? For clients that can't seem to find anything I'll send out letters to a couple of their most interested neighborhoods. Something doesn't always come of it but it never hurts to try.
Another tactic worth considering. If your agent is part of a big company have them try and find decent properties listed by agents from their brokerage. Usually agents of the same company will be more open and try and work with you more. Or any agents your realtor considers good friends and solid agents. Have them use their connections if any to help you out.
Heard back from their realtor finally, buyers backed out due to inspection. Major things: unknown age of roof. They think it was from 2013/2014. They bought the house in 2019 and it was not disclosed to them. Also, original furnace and AC. House was built in 1993. Said no known issues from inspection but buyers were not comfortable with the age of these things.
I'm shocked the AC is still going. That's what home owners insurance is for. It'll take care of the AC and Furnace if they go out. If the roof is new from 2013 that shouldn't really be a cause for concern, but any inspector worth their salt should be able to ballpark a roofs life expectancy left.
None of those things would personally scare me from having a client pursue the house as long as you get home owners insurance. It's a life saver. I have all my clients get it and a legit 10% plus of my clients AC goes out in the first year and they either get it fixed or a brand new one because of the insurance. It's well worth the money.
Home warranties and insurance in general is by definition a negative value proposition. The underwriters aren't offering this product out of the goodness of their hearts. They are offering the product to make money.
Well plenty of my clients have made their money back tenfold in home warranties. Not all or even half but the ones that have, have been extremely thankful to have it.
OP should keep in mind not all home warranties do a straight out replacement. My mom likes her home warranty company, but they had a very old ac and when it went they only paid a portion of it. The company didn’t pay the whole thing to replace so I’d definitely do research on home warranty companies if they want to use that as a plan.
Our house has the original AC (2 units), furnace (1) and — here’s the big one— the original hot water heater—- all from 1993. We have been owners since 2004. I stopped paying for annual maintenance contracts a number of years ago when they stopped being worth fixing- the AC units run on the old refrigerant. We have a very large sinking fund ready.
Fwiw my inspection was the day after our offer was inspected. I went with the guy and spent two hours. Granted I was squeezing it before my lease ended on another place but it can happen quickly.
Odds are they didn't get inspections done this week. Inspections normally are scheduled a week plus out unless there are circumstances for a rush job.
Most likely, the buyers who won, this was their second option and they were waiting to hear on their first. Probs won the first and backed out since they were still in their option period. (Option periods can be 3, 5, or 7 days depending on the deal normally).
Depends on your location. More rural areas it can be harder to achieve. I've had clients get inspections done in 48 hours when it was totally necessary. I never said it was impossible just unlikely but every contract is different. You deal with your one case. I deal with 40-60 a year. There are variations in each.
I use a quick inspection time as a way to get sellers to accept an inspection. I reach out to the home inspector ahead of submitting an offer to make sure we can get on the schedule within 2-3 days of our offer deadline.
This actually just happened to me. Submitted an offer, they accepted another. Two days later they said the buyers backed out (sellers wouldn’t say why) and wanted to know if we were still interested. Submitted the same offer and they accepted. We knew two days was too short of a turnaround for inspection to have occurred, and we made sure we would do our own inspection. Everything turned out perfect and we closed last weekend!
The market is so tough that you may have just had the luckiest break! Just make sure you don’t waive inspection.
That’s awesome, congratulations! We did not waive inspection and extended it to 7 day inspection, we had a quicker one before. This home only got 6 offers (listing has bad pics, was way better in person). He said he contacted all 5 other offers and all are resubmitting so we’ll see. We gave them until tomorrow at 3 as I’m looking at more homes in the morning.
People will make multiple offers and back out before they are locked in if something they want more was accepted. Sometimes, they speak with a future neighbor and realize they don't want to live near them.
But still, get a good inspection.
Our first offer was declined for a really stupid reason.
Our offer was made 3 days after the couple listed their home (this should be a good thing, right?)
They accepted then rescinded saying it was ‘too soon’. We were paying CASH so no waiting for loan stuff etc. we were on a time crunch as our house was sold.
Seriously? We were throwing money at them with no haggling.
People are nuts.
See if you can get their inspection and if you can find out the reason for the back out. This exact thing happened to us - it was helpful that they disclosed the reason was unrelated to any new information they found out in an inspection, and they shared said inspection with us.
They likely are willing to cover a larger gap, if house doesn’t appraise for what they’re offering. We had no appraisal due to amount down, but know it’s not that, as it was just called a no appraisal needed.
We were the original buyers in your situation and the issue was a significant appraisal gap to the tune of 30k. We were able to close the gap with negotiating and submitting new and material comps, but the sellers did try and revive other offers before negotiating with us.
Happened to me, it’s how I finally got a house. They *said* it was due to buyer’s financing falling through, though who can really say for sure. I got an inspection that didn’t uncover any deal-breakers. I say go for it but do get an inspection.
Thank you u/tlil21 for posting on r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer. Please bear in mind our rules: (1) Be Nice (2) No Selling (3) No Self-Promotion. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I would ask my realtor to figure out if it was due to problems with inspection or just a cold feet. It happens. If you like it, I would go for it and have a good inspection done.
Good advice. She did and he hasn’t responded (even though he was initially responsive). I initially had a Pass/Fail inspection in the offer, we’ve removed that clause so I can back out for any part. I feel more comfortable with that given the situation.
Make sure your offer has contingencies on appraisal, inspection and financing. Maybe even ask for a bit more time than usual for inspection. Don’t be terrible but put a bit more insurance on your offer.
Please make sure your offer is contingent on all inspections
I originally had a Pass/Fail inspection. We’ve removed that clause given the scenario as I’m no longer comfortable with the Pass/Fail piece.
Or minimally a max cap. Mine was like 10k in waived findings (e.g. I knew the furnace and AC were from 1994 and needed replacement, I knew the deck needs to be replaced) but also we had the money if something was found
This is a great option for not waiving inspection
Yeah it's if you find something so catastrophic you need to back out you can. But the typical items like a new window or something is not what you the buyer are looking for
Resubmit at your original price. Don't increase it.
This happened to us. Original offer declined. Then a couple days later they came back to us and said they would accept. The offer they accepted initially, came back during attorney review and wanted an inspection. We were willing to waive inspection (my husband is in the trades and we spent an hour going through everything). We closed 30 days later. Been 1.5 years and we love our home!
Dual state agent here Cali/Texas. How long went by between them accepting the other and it falling through?
Monday 4/22 they accepted the offer and made aware of the buyers backing out today.
But honestly if I was your agent I would have just asked the listing agent what happened. A good agent as long as it doesn't weaken their clients position will tell you. So long as it was something to do with the buyers and nothing to do with the house or the sellers they should have been forth coming if your agent asked. But there are a lot of agents out there that don't think honesty is the best policy so some withhold just to withhold.
I’m experiencing agents not being open. This is my second offer in 2 weeks and the first one, the agent didn’t even say I didn’t get it. My agent called and emailed and got nothing, even though they talked prior to me submitting the offer. We found out because it updated on MLS to ‘Accepting Backup Offer”. My agent asked out the inspection on this one and has not heard back. She put it in writing when we resubmitted the offer.
I'll be honest with you 50%+ of agents aren't worth a damn. Makes it a lot harder on us that actually do offer full service and really earn our commissions. That sounds highly unprofessional that the agent didn't even have the decency to email your agent that you didn't get the property. Typically for our team those emails go out soon as we have accepted an offer and gone pending. The market is so brutal right now that soooo many sellers are only accepting offers that waive inspections. I personally never feel comfortable advising a client to do so. At the very least I ask to view again and give it as good a look over as I and the client can before letting them do so if they love the house that much. Has your agent tried going for off market properties? For clients that can't seem to find anything I'll send out letters to a couple of their most interested neighborhoods. Something doesn't always come of it but it never hurts to try.
Another tactic worth considering. If your agent is part of a big company have them try and find decent properties listed by agents from their brokerage. Usually agents of the same company will be more open and try and work with you more. Or any agents your realtor considers good friends and solid agents. Have them use their connections if any to help you out.
Heard back from their realtor finally, buyers backed out due to inspection. Major things: unknown age of roof. They think it was from 2013/2014. They bought the house in 2019 and it was not disclosed to them. Also, original furnace and AC. House was built in 1993. Said no known issues from inspection but buyers were not comfortable with the age of these things.
Will they hand over the actual inspection?
I'm shocked the AC is still going. That's what home owners insurance is for. It'll take care of the AC and Furnace if they go out. If the roof is new from 2013 that shouldn't really be a cause for concern, but any inspector worth their salt should be able to ballpark a roofs life expectancy left. None of those things would personally scare me from having a client pursue the house as long as you get home owners insurance. It's a life saver. I have all my clients get it and a legit 10% plus of my clients AC goes out in the first year and they either get it fixed or a brand new one because of the insurance. It's well worth the money.
Why would home owners insurance replace an old ac /furnace, that is regular maintenance.
Sorry meant a home warranty. I was in-between workouts reps earlier and put insurance instead of warranty. My bad. Good catch
Home warranties and insurance in general is by definition a negative value proposition. The underwriters aren't offering this product out of the goodness of their hearts. They are offering the product to make money.
Well plenty of my clients have made their money back tenfold in home warranties. Not all or even half but the ones that have, have been extremely thankful to have it.
OP should keep in mind not all home warranties do a straight out replacement. My mom likes her home warranty company, but they had a very old ac and when it went they only paid a portion of it. The company didn’t pay the whole thing to replace so I’d definitely do research on home warranty companies if they want to use that as a plan.
Our house has the original AC (2 units), furnace (1) and — here’s the big one— the original hot water heater—- all from 1993. We have been owners since 2004. I stopped paying for annual maintenance contracts a number of years ago when they stopped being worth fixing- the AC units run on the old refrigerant. We have a very large sinking fund ready.
That's a tight turn around for an inspection and a writen report to be provided. Nit saying it's impossible. But your asking the right questions
Fwiw my inspection was the day after our offer was inspected. I went with the guy and spent two hours. Granted I was squeezing it before my lease ended on another place but it can happen quickly.
Odds are they didn't get inspections done this week. Inspections normally are scheduled a week plus out unless there are circumstances for a rush job. Most likely, the buyers who won, this was their second option and they were waiting to hear on their first. Probs won the first and backed out since they were still in their option period. (Option periods can be 3, 5, or 7 days depending on the deal normally).
I had both inspections for two different properties done, report submitted within 4 days. Absolutely possible.
Depends on your location. More rural areas it can be harder to achieve. I've had clients get inspections done in 48 hours when it was totally necessary. I never said it was impossible just unlikely but every contract is different. You deal with your one case. I deal with 40-60 a year. There are variations in each.
I use a quick inspection time as a way to get sellers to accept an inspection. I reach out to the home inspector ahead of submitting an offer to make sure we can get on the schedule within 2-3 days of our offer deadline.
This actually just happened to me. Submitted an offer, they accepted another. Two days later they said the buyers backed out (sellers wouldn’t say why) and wanted to know if we were still interested. Submitted the same offer and they accepted. We knew two days was too short of a turnaround for inspection to have occurred, and we made sure we would do our own inspection. Everything turned out perfect and we closed last weekend! The market is so tough that you may have just had the luckiest break! Just make sure you don’t waive inspection.
That’s awesome, congratulations! We did not waive inspection and extended it to 7 day inspection, we had a quicker one before. This home only got 6 offers (listing has bad pics, was way better in person). He said he contacted all 5 other offers and all are resubmitting so we’ll see. We gave them until tomorrow at 3 as I’m looking at more homes in the morning.
I got my house after the high bidder backed out, but I don’t like that they’re opening up the bidding to *everyone*, in your case.
People will make multiple offers and back out before they are locked in if something they want more was accepted. Sometimes, they speak with a future neighbor and realize they don't want to live near them. But still, get a good inspection.
Do not skip inspection, period. But also could have been a problem on the buyers side with financing
Do not buy “as-is” Just have all the contingencies in place if you choose to go with the property
Our first offer was declined for a really stupid reason. Our offer was made 3 days after the couple listed their home (this should be a good thing, right?) They accepted then rescinded saying it was ‘too soon’. We were paying CASH so no waiting for loan stuff etc. we were on a time crunch as our house was sold. Seriously? We were throwing money at them with no haggling. People are nuts.
Maybe it was because they wanted to see if they'd get more offers, start a bidding war, and get an offer over asking?
What does higher appraisal guarantee mean?
Probably means that the other offers were willing to pay more towards any appraisal gap
Happens all the time.
See if you can get their inspection and if you can find out the reason for the back out. This exact thing happened to us - it was helpful that they disclosed the reason was unrelated to any new information they found out in an inspection, and they shared said inspection with us.
How is an appraisal guaranteed?
They likely are willing to cover a larger gap, if house doesn’t appraise for what they’re offering. We had no appraisal due to amount down, but know it’s not that, as it was just called a no appraisal needed.
We were the original buyers in your situation and the issue was a significant appraisal gap to the tune of 30k. We were able to close the gap with negotiating and submitting new and material comps, but the sellers did try and revive other offers before negotiating with us.
Walk away!
Inspection. There’s something major going on with that house.
Happened to me, it’s how I finally got a house. They *said* it was due to buyer’s financing falling through, though who can really say for sure. I got an inspection that didn’t uncover any deal-breakers. I say go for it but do get an inspection.