I’m under contract for a home to close on Sept. 8th. First time homebuyer. Our agent informed us just over two weeks ago that sellers were buying a new house and might want a later closing date to make things easier for them. We agreed that would be okay; we’re currently renters and won’t give our 30 days notice until the closing goes through. But after that communication, it was crickets. I followed up with my agent about a week later to ask about it, and was told that actually, they didn’t want to move the closing date anymore, but might but want to ask for a rent back. I have seen enough people say “no way!” here on Reddit that my gut reaction was no. Not gonna go down that road. I’m willing to be flexible on closing date, but I want keys when I sign the papers my first home. I don’t want to open myself up to any risks, mostly. Although to be honest, if sellers had accepted our request for a partial roof credit (our roof guy recommended replacing it, but it might have 3-4 years left in it), I would have felt like “Okay, well they were generous with us, so I can be generous with them”, and I might do a rent back just because of trying to be an accommodating person with some empathy. Our agent heard us loud and clear and communicated back to their agent. Time went by and no formal request came our way for anything.
During all this time, I’ve set up all our insurance policies and warranties and all that, and was going to set up utilities as soon as I got a spare minute today, only 9 days away from closing. But I got a call from my agent first, informing me that the sellers submitted a rent back addendum for a week after closing, through the 15th. She reiterated to their agent that we were very against it, but he asked that she have us consider it.
9 days. Two weeks after informing them that we would not want to do a rent back, but we could do a closing date adjustment. But 9 days left on the clock and I no longer want to do either. I just want my house! I don’t want to make the calls to change dates for anything. I don’t want to wait another week to move in (I am currently driving my kids to and from their two separate new schools every day until we move, and it’s a pain all by itself!). But I am struggling because I feel like the Bad Guy if I say no, even though I know I have every right to.
I could make this financially advantageous to us - like doubling the daily rate we’d pay for our mortgage - but meh. It would feel so anticlimactic to buy our (hopefully) forever home after 23 years of renting, only to have to wait a week before we can even show our kids their new home. I don’t really want to do it. My only real hesitation is motivated by not wanting to cause any bad feelings.
They are reportedly on track with packing and cleaning, but their new house (closing same day) needs new carpets and so they can’t move in right away. They seem like a nice older couple from the very little I know about them, and I’d hate to be unempathetic, especially when I am not being rushed out of my own rental. I don’t truly think the arrangement would lose any risk, if I’m being honest. But it also seems kind of rude. They’ve had at least two weeks to make a formal request and they did nothing, so we moved forward with our plans for closing on the 8th. Why on earth wait till now, and why pick the option they should already understand we don’t want to do? And why is it so hard for me to just say, “We already said no, and now is not the time to try to change our minds”?
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/165uc0a/seller_asks_for_rent_back_just_before_closing/
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