Hi, I and my wife are first time home buyers and were naive enough to expect a smooth sailing experience. We put down an offer on a house which is supposed to close tomorrow. But throughout the process the seller and their agent have been everything but communicative. After the inspection the seller refused to all the minor changes we asked for and also didn't want to give credit or replace the water heater which had started rusting. After many talks with our realtors they agreed to replace it. We did a walkthrough today to water heater has been replaced but the sellers and their agent is not responding to our requests to provide proof that the water heater is a new one. They're basically ghosting us.
With this and taking their behavior into account I don't see us closing on time that is tomorrow. When I asked my agent for options they told me that we could either file for an extension or cancel the agreement. He said if we do the latter the sellers might sue us for earnest money since we didn't close. Our agreement just asks the seller to replace the water heater with another of similar efficiency. It does not mention that it has to be new. When we were signing this it never occurred to me that anyone might try to replace it with another old water heater. So I don't know how strong a case they have if they decide to sue us for earnest money.
Another option he gave us is to accept it and then go to small claims court. We've never done this and I don't know how effective this would be.
I am frustrated and do not know what my course of action should be. I don't want to file an extension with no consequences for the sellers for this kind of behavior. I am not sure if I should cancel the agreement with the possibility of being sued or should I just try my luck at the small claims court. We're immensely stressed as we'll have to move out of our apartment soon and we were counting on the house closing on time.
Sorry about the wall of text but I guess I am just ranting.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/dphwin/frustrated_with_the_sellers_and_their_agents/
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