Argh, another reason to dislike real estate agents. I had an agent call me on a property I’m selling, said the buyer was ready to buy a house I had listed. She sent me a contract with no option fee and photo of a $500 check she was planning to take to title company I specified. Fine, I make some minor changes, including a $100 option fee, since I had another buyer on the hook already but no signed contract. She stalls until after Christmas and then yesterday at 5 PM emails me to tell me the buyer has changed their mind b/c of electrical repairs needed. Repairs that are in progress and well outlined in the Seller’s Disclosure I sent her.
Well, this morning I just found out they went to the property without my knowledge to an inspection and the inspector told them it would be really expensive to have all that stuff fixed and brought up to code. Mind you, the repairs were in progress as we had to get the light company to remove the locking ring so we can put in an entirely NEW service and upgrade all the wiring for the property. So the buyer got scared off - inspectors can be great for that, can’t they? and withdrew their offer. Argh. We were spending the money to make the updates and this agent just cost me another two weeks of holding costs.
My original buyers were ready to go and I was going to owner finance for them but since this new buyer had their own financing I was willing to entertain this new offer. Oh well, just needed to rant a bit, at least I do have a buyer in hand and can now move forward making the place ready for them. Just ticks me off that they went into the property without telling me and now I wonder if she even gave them the Seller’s Disclosure.
So if you had notice, you would have had all of the work completed before the visit? I would only buy the house contingent on the repairs being done to my satisfaction. The problem is not the agent, it is the fact that the repairs are not done. Doing is not done. FWIW- Most end buyers want to buy a house, not a construction project.
Its unfortunate the buyer thought he was getting a bad deal,but i am sure if the agent had notified you of the inspection you would have explained where you were with the repairs satisfactorily.
Even if the agenbt would have advised you that they were having an inspection done it would not have made a difference. Your marketing a home that is under repair. You should either take it off the market until the repairs are done or be prepared to have buyers walk.
Its unfortunate for the buyers that they spent a couple hundred dollars on an inspection for a property they did not have under contract. That is the agents fault.