With high hopes and in good faith, we entered a contract with the buyer of our Texas home. This was a buyer we selected out of 29 offers because all parts of the offer indicated that the buyer was very invested in purchasing our home. It wasn’t the highest offer by any stretch of the imagination, but we felt it was the best overall offer.

The buyer was contacted and signed the purchase contract.

Everything was moving along fine and then the appraisal arrived. It was at this point the buyer decided to request renegotiation on the offer.

At first, we weren’t sure we wanted to renegotiate. After all, we were past the option period and the contract was in place. The buyer’s agent made it clear that if we weren’t willing to renegotiate, they would walk away from the offer. Walking away would have meant the buyer losing all the earnest money they had invested, but it would also mean starting all over again to find a new buyer, accept an offer, and lose the two weeks that had already passed. It also meant delaying the purchase of our new home in Illinois and we weren’t sure what the impact would be on that deal. So, we renegotiated in good faith, came to an agreement that we felt was fair to both partie. The amended contract was accepted and signed.

With things back on track we continued moving along when the buyer once again wanted to renegotiate. There was no great reason for the renegotiation other than wanting us to come down to appraisal and then the buyer sent yet another request for us to go below appraisal. The buyer also wanted to switch lenders and delay closing for over two weeks past the contract date. Our realtor had already been in contact with the lender and knew that everything was completed and ready to close. There was no reason to continue delaying this and the delay, while possibly helping the buyer, would do absolutely nothing to help us. For a matter of fact, there was every possibility it would work against us. We were going to take control of the situation as much as we could and even though the buyer was once again threatening to walk away from the deal, we responded with a no and stated we would stick with the current contract to close on the 30th.

At this point, communication from the buyer and his realtor stopped so our realtor decided we should take it a step further. Honestly, we were at the point of wanting the buyer to walk away even if that meant losing the house we were trying to buy in Illinois. It was clear the only interest the buyer had at this point was continuing to renegotiate which was only hurting us, so our realtor sent the other agent the buyer’s walking papers. Documents that the buyer was encouraged to sign to get out of the deal and allow us to find a new buyer. Documents that also meant the earnest money invested in the deal would be turned over to us.

For two days we received no communication from the buyer’s agent or lender. The title company also got involved by sending an email to gather more information, but again, there was no response.

Thanks to our realtor having had enough of the silence, she took things into her own hands. This ruffled feathers enough that finally the buyer’s realtor contacted her to explain what was happening.

Due to the circumstances surrounding the buyer’s silence, I will not be sharing that information at this time. That is a post for after we’ve actually closed on this house. And let me say that the story is simply too good not to share.

At this point we are being told that the buyer does want the house and will close on the 30th. Again, there is more to this story that still causes us to wonder . . . .

Will the buyer walk away? Close? Simply not show up on the 30th?

We’re exactly 1 week from closing, so stay tuned for the outcome.