Has anyone had their home sale contract cancelled..on closing day?

[tzolkin]

My parents just had this happen to them. The buyer simply didn't show up to the closing (and couldn't be reached by phone). They found out a few days later that supposedly her husband served her with divorce papers right before the closing.

We sort-of had this from the opposite end when we purchased our current home. We were supposed to close on a Friday (I even came in from out of state) but due to a mortgage company issue we were not able to. The sellers were mad that they therefore could not close on the house they were purchasing that day, so they cancelled our contract. We were able to close on Tuesday, but it wound up costing us more because they refused to pay for any of the repairs they originally agreed to.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

No but it was tempting to cancel one ourselves. When we did the walk through the morning of closing, they hadn't packed up or moved a thing out of the house and they were supposed to be out that day.

The only thing that stopped us was we had just closed on our old house and we were supposed to be out of that the next day so most of our belongings were already packed waiting on the movers later that afternoon. I had to change our moving day, our realtor had to talk with the people buying our house to make sure they would be ok with waiting one day (they said they were ok with it but then showed up at the house planning to move in at 7am the next day before our movers had even showed up to get our stuff out!).
I was trying to take care of a 4 year old, a baby (I had babysitters lined up and two didn't show up) and clean the old house while getting our things moved onto a too small vehicle since the movers showed up not with a tractor trailer like they were supposed to but a smaller UHaul truck which made several trips back and forth between houses. And having the new homeowners trying to move in at the same time which I kept having to ask them to wait at least until we got the upstairs emptied out!
My husband was with the movers making sure things went into the proper rooms at the new house so he wasn't around much to help at the old house that day.

The whole thing was very stressful and a mess. I told my husband if we ever move again, we'll put our stuff in storage and get a hotel room for a few days in between closings. That way I could hire someone to clean the house we are moving out of and have time to hire someone to clean the house we would be moving into. The cats can be boarded and we'll have less stress - I hope.

 

[scrapquitler]

Oh goodness, this thread is timely for me. My brother, who lives a few miles away, is closing on his house tomorrow. The buyers want to do a walk through one last time tomorrow morning (the closing is in the afternoon). Why would they feel the need to do this???

I wouldn't buy a house without a final walk thru the morning of the closing, it's standard here. You want to make sure that the seller didn't trash the house, that the fixtures that are supposed to stay are still there (appliances, for example, and even in cases I've heard of light fixures gone missing, etc) and that the piles of crap in the garage got thrown away and not left for the buyer to deal with. And you want to make sure that there were no substantial changes in the property that would make the mortgage lender freak out (did the big tree put a hole in the roof last week? Did the above ground pool collapse? etc) Stuff happens, this is just a last minute check to make sure there are no surprises or breaches of the contract.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I saw on FB that one of my old work friends house was again for sale. Because the buyers backed out on closing day!

I'd die! We moved a year ago and I never plan on moving agai . So stressful! And I live in an area that sells so well that realtors cold call (4th fastest growing town in the US).

My friend lives about 40 miles inland so their houses sell a little slower but dang! On closing day all of my furniture was gone and my house was empty! I don't even know what you'd do!

We had a home where the buyer could not and did not close.

They were given a few days to get their act together before we relisted. This was done since a buyer in hand is better then no buyer. A new contract and new close date were selected.

They failed to disclose ahead of time their loan was contigent.

For us to get to keep the deposit, we would have had to sue them.

So in the end, it was worth it. It took an additional 60 days, though. And my realtor required more than typically required as proof before we agreed to press on.

 

[Gracie09]

Our buyers tried to get money out of us on closing day. We installed new cherry floors 18 months before selling. Cherry darkens when exposed to light. We had some rugs down. Buyers never asked, never looked, never did anything. Day of moving, we emptied the house, their realtor came by and wanted $5000 for new floors. Our realtor told her to shove it and got the atty on the phone. Closing went through. If they left the floor uncovered for 6 months, the wood would all be the same color. This was the last in a series of things they tried to get us to pay for. They were at the very top of their budget in buying the house, if not over and we think their realtor told them they would find something to get money back on during the inspection. They tried to get us to treat "mold" to the tune of 10k in the eves of the attic. It was bread mold (penicillium) caused by the whole house humdifier we had installed with the new heating and cooling system. If they turned it off (the humidifier) they wouldn't have a problem but we were not paying for remediation. They threatened to walk. We said fine, instead of selling we would just do plan B - an extension and keep living there.
Then they tried to get our deep freezer, lawn mower, and some other stuff. We told them to stuff it.

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

Thank goodness my brother had his closing without any issues today.

We built our home, so I'm not familiar with these "day of closing" walk throughs that so many of you are referring to.

 

[DSMVP]

I would seriously have had a heart attack if this would've happened to me. I just sold my home (recently divorced, and had to live in the same house with ex until the house sold! It was a nightmare). If the sellers would've backed out I seriously don't know what I would've done. Luckily it was a smooth closing but took 4 months to close after the contracts were signed! And in my area a walk through either the night before or day of closing is the norm.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

This ALMOST happened to me as a buyer. My real estate agent had put me in touch with a mortgage company when I bought the house. All was approved. Closing was four months later. We did all the closing documents, etc., with the lawyer. On the DAY WE WERE SUPPOSED TO MOVE IN, the mortgage company calls me to say they have changed their mind. Not going to give me the mortgage. I was going out of my mind! I had people moving into the house where I was renting, all our stuff loaded on the moving van, and now they are going to tell me that they won't give me the mortgage? So they told me that if I could give another $10,000 and show my bank statements for the past year, they would reconsider. Why didn't they ask this over the previous four months? I managed to find some friends who would loan me the money, went to the bank because I had to get a certified cheque and the bank statements. The bank manager saw me red-eyed and miserable in line (by now it was mid-afternoon) and ushered me into his office, calmed me down, and got me the documents I needed. So in the end we got the house, but boy I barely recovered from that stress. And I know the people we were buying from would have been as shocked and upset as I was!

 

[Lynne M]

Thank goodness my brother had his closing without any issues today.

We built our home, so I'm not familiar with these "day of closing" walk throughs that so many of you are referring to.

Yeah, they're quite normal. My realtor insisted that I do one the night before (we had a morning closing). I didn't think it was necessary, as there was no outstanding work to be done, but she said she'd rather do an unnecessary walk-through than get a call after closing saying that the appliances had gone missing.