The House: an Update =)

LDYGTR13

They accepted our offer and have agreed to our Nov. 15th closing date!!!

YAY!!!

However - and KYKate and other people who know more about this than I do might be able to help me with this - they have asked to have posession of the house for 7 days after closing so they can move out.

Does that sound odd to anyone else?

squirrly

Yeah, I'm not a fan of that idea.  You have no recourse left if they damage the house during move out. 

Possession at closing.  Period.  If they want possession for 7 more days, close on the 22nd.

vallyhoo

congrats

and I agree NO WAY JOSE on the possession after closing. that's crazysauce.

waltzingmatilda13

I don't know anything about real estate, but it sounds like they want a free place to stay for a week. Can you charge them for that time?

Beachy730

Congrats!

And I would say no.  I don't understand why they wouldn't be moved out before the closing date, especially since they wanted a sooner closing date anyways.  I would without a doubt say no.

katiewhompus

Yeah I'm not liking that so much. Like Squirrly said, they could major fvck up the house and you would be left paying for it. Maybe if you wrote out a contract that they would owe you for 1/4th of the months mortgage along with any damages. You would be paying for them to live there for 7 days, and be unable to go in there yourself to do any painting, cleaning, etc.

That's just bizarre. First they want to close on the 12th and now the 15th is before they can actually leave?

ohwhynot

Hooray!  But . . . I wouldn't agree to them having possession for 7 days.  That would probably work out okay, but I could easily see it going horribly wrong.  What if they cause damage during those days?  Do you have a lease with them for those 7 days?   Do they pay rent to you for that week?  Who holds insurance on the property for those days?  If you can decline, I would. 

FutureMrsTR

That seems weird to me and like pp said, they wanted an earlier closing so why can't they get out of there on time?  Seems a little shady.  Tell them to pretend they're closing on the 12th like they wanted to and be out by the 15th.

cengle

Yeah, if they want to stay there for 7 more days, then the closing should be 7 days later. Sellers need to be out on closing day--that's kind of the point of closing, no?

deburnin

It's not unheard of, but I wouldn't agree to that personally. After your final walk through you agree that the house is in the condition you agreed to purchase. If they're in there and damage anything there will be nothing you can do. Also if they decide they can't move out after those seven days are up, that will be more added stress. 

If you decide to go this way make sure you have a written contract drawn up and don't rely on an oral agreement.

shaydenise

Yeah, none of the real estate agents  I worked with would have gone for the 7 day thing.  I say bad idea.  If you close on the 15th, you get the keys on the 15th.  They are out on the 15th.

squirrly

Technically, they would need to rent it back from you, and all that jazz, which is a huge hassle, which is why most people refuse to do that.  SOMETIMES, if the seller is buying another house, they have to close on the home they're selling before they can close on the home they're buying, because they can't qualify for both mortgages at the same time.  If they can't do both closings the same day, sometimes you have this possession thing because they literally have nowhere to move their stuff. 

But, you said they're living with family for 2 months before moving into their new house, right?  I think they're just trying to get out of the mortgage payments and hope to stick you with as much as possible. 

They need to be out before the closing, and you need to do a walkthrough to confirm they're out and there's no damage. 

katiewhompus

Talked to H (he did Real Estate for a while)

You can do a rentback contract, which apparently aren't as crazy as we all think. You just write into the contract that they are renting the property from you and that the closing is only contigent upon the condition of the house on the day they move out. The sellers are responsible for paying the cost of living for the time in the house and are responsible for any damages incurred to the house after the final walk through at the first closing. You would then do a second walk through after the sellers vacate the premises where the entire deal is solidified.

Basically you buy the house on the condition that they don't fvck it up. If they do the deal is off.

truegirl89

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_house-update-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:0216ff16-7d6b-4ef5-859a-9aea2619a825Post:87448760-f44e-4d2d-a108-49bbbeae9216">Re: The House: an Update =)</a>:
[QUOTE]That seems weird to me and like pp said, they wanted an earlier closing so why can't they get out of there on time?  Seems a little shady.  <strong>Tell them to pretend they're closing on the 12th like they wanted to and be out by the 15th</strong>.
Posted by FutureMrsTR[/QUOTE]

LMAO!
My family does this to my parents cause they're never on time.

It sounds a little weird. Maybe talk to your realtor and see what she/he thinks.

Manwaithiel

Sounds shady to me. I think the rentback agreement that katie talked about is the best compromise if you must compromise with them on this. (try not to, in this economy, they should be begging you to buy their house)

LDYGTR13

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_house-update-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:0216ff16-7d6b-4ef5-859a-9aea2619a825Post:ea640d6f-d0f9-498b-b6da-f56e28357559">Re: The House: an Update =)</a>:
[QUOTE]Yeah, I'm not a fan of that idea.  You have no recourse left if they damage the house during move out.  Possession at closing.  Period.  If they want possession for 7 more days, close on the 22nd.
Posted by squirrly[/QUOTE]

There is an addendum to the closing that we would sign saying that everyone should be as it was on the closing date - if anything is different after the 7 days it would need to be repaired....

still don't know how I feel about it though.

LDYGTR13

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_house-update-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:0216ff16-7d6b-4ef5-859a-9aea2619a825Post:59e9cea1-80e1-4d71-82a0-d9207519825b">Re: The House: an Update =)</a>:
[QUOTE]Hooray!  But . . . I wouldn't agree to them having possession for 7 days.  That would probably work out okay, but I could easily see it going horribly wrong.  What if they cause damage during those days?  Do you have a lease with them for those 7 days?   Do they pay rent to you for that week?  Who holds insurance on the property for those days?  If you can decline, I would. 
Posted by ohwhynot[/QUOTE]

We were thinking about charging a prorated rent on those 7 days - figure out what our monthly payment is and divide it by 30 and mult it by 7. Charge them that. Insurance would be ours starting the day of closing. I'm iffy on that.

squirrly

Yeah, I'm familiar with the addendum.  But, if they do damage something and don't pay up, you still own a damaged house.  I don't think the two morgtgage companies just reverse the transaction - it just gives you the opportunity to sue them, which is a PITA.

I'd want a couple thousand dollars held in escrow until after they were actually out, if you do it.  That way, there's money already set aside for the repairs. 

LDYGTR13

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_house-update-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:0216ff16-7d6b-4ef5-859a-9aea2619a825Post:87448760-f44e-4d2d-a108-49bbbeae9216">Re: The House: an Update =)</a>:
[QUOTE]That seems weird to me and like pp said, they wanted an earlier closing so why can't they get out of there on time?  Seems a little shady.  Tell them to pretend they're closing on the 12th like they wanted to and be out by the 15th.
Posted by FutureMrsTR[/QUOTE]


Haha, EXACTLY! They wanted out by the end of this month and now that we moved the date 15 days later, they want to stay 7 more days?? I dont get it. Aparently they have had a bad experience in the past where someone said they were going to close and then on the day of closing backed out and they already had all of their stuff out.

I assume they're spooked. But I feel like we should kinda give them a little leeway since they are okay with the date WE specified...

iamjoesgurl

Congratulations!  I saw the picture that you posted last week and the house is so cute.  I'm glad everything is working out. 

By the way, I didn't have time to read all of the pps, but I think having them move out 7 days after closing seems reasonable.  Both of my sisters bought their first homes where their new home was rented back to the owners for at least a few months because they were doing new construction and couldn't move in right away.  It all worked out fine.

[Deleted User]

H and I aren't there yet. Although this thread has some good advice in it for the future.

Congrats on the house - I remember how much you wanted it.

KentuckyKate

Congratulations on your offer being accepted!  There doesn't seem to be a great reason to agree to that, especially since they originally wanted an earlier closing date.   Like PPs said, it is risky business.  That said, I closed on my home on a Tuesday and we got the keys the following Saturday, but our sellers had a reason I could live with.  They were in their 80's, and their kids were coming in town that weekend to help them move to a retirement home.  We couldn't close any later, because we were racing against tax day in order to get our first time home buyer credit in this year's refund.

If I were you, I would get your agent to find out more details before making that decision.

sister2groom

That just seems sketchy, so unless they can provide a compelling reason or a ton of cash, I wouldn't. Just insist on closing later, they get to move out later, you get to close later, win-win. If I were you, I just wouldn't want to deal with the stress of figuring out insurance if they screw up your house, cause I thought you were already cutting things close with the original closing date and having a whole bunch of stuff to do around that time, I can't imagine being a landlord would help.

CALEO

I would not do this.

I don't know what the laws are in your state but in CA if you agree to let them stay the 7 days and they stay more than that - they have a tenancy at will and it takes a 30 day notice to be able to file an unlawful detainer.  After you file it, it takes another month or so (more if they answer and dont default) to get the judgement, turn it into a writ and have the sheriff go change the locks.

I do unlawful detianers all the time for clients and it can be 3 months before you actually get possession.

CA is really tenant oriented so take that w a grain of salt. 

I would not do it.  Just have closing be the day they will move out.