TLDR: Offered to do all repairs on due diligence. Buyers waited entire DD period to terminate. Now buyers extorting me for more money than they paid.
My house went under contract 3 weeks ago. I got a great deal on the house in the beginning of 2020, NC waterfront for $320k. The couple was going through a divorce and just wanted to get rid of it. There were some issues on the inspection, but nothing major. All issues were addressed. Fast forward to a few months ago, I am moving, and the house is worth $5-600k. I listed the house for $525 and I had 10 requests for showings in 48 hours. Given the unknown trajectory of the market, I accepted the first offer of $10k over asking with a 24-hour period to accept. I accepted.
Because of the previous buyers being of no help on anything, it was difficult for me to put any meaningful information on the RPD. The previous owner’s agent did tell me that a portion of the metal roof had been repaired in 2018 after hurricane Florence. So on the RPD under roof I put “2018” nothing more, nothing less. When the buyers had the inspection done, the inspector expressed concerns about the roof. The metal roof had been installed over the top of the old shingle roof and you could see damage to the old sheathing from where the previous roof had leaked. He found no active leaking and simply recommended that a roofing specialist come out to assess it. I also have the inspector on video stating, “this is definitely NOT a deal breaker” and “that roof is definitely sturdy”.
When the buyers sent the due diligence, it simply stated that we needed to replace the entire roof. They never hired a roofing specialist to inspect or get a quote for the repairs. I hired a roofing company to assess and give me an estimate. They told me they could find no active leaks, but that the screws on the metal roof were of concern as some had corroded and/or lifted. My 3 options were to install new oversized aluminum screws ($2000), put a coating over the roof ($5-8000), or full replacement ($16,500). We delivered this back to the buyers and offered $12,000 in credits to do ALL repairs or towards a new roof if that’s what they wanted. They waited the entire length of the 3 week due diligence period and terminated on the final day, not accepting my offer. These people wasted over 3 weeks of my time, killed the momentum of my home sale, and likely cost me tens of thousands of dollars.
At this point, the buyer’s agent began sending over threating emails stating that I was required to return the $3,000 due diligence money as I had not disclosed the “damage” to the roof. Again, there were no active leaks found in the roof. Last night I received a letter from their attorney stating that not only did they want their due diligence and earnest money, but they also want an additional $1200 for their inspections and “legal fees”. I obviously am not doing that and will gladly go to small claims court to fight this.
My suspicion is that the Buyer’s realtor made promises that they could back out whenever they wanted to and get everything paid for. As anyone experienced anything like this before? Are there actions I can take against this realtor? These actions cannot be ethical.
[link] [comments]
source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/xmu913/buyers_backed_out_now_they_are_extorting_me_for/
Comments
Post a Comment