When Should the Seller Move Out?

Lise Howe Sold Your House!

Congratulations! You have a contract on your home! Your agent has done a wonderful job for you, found the buyer of your dreams, gotten you top dollar, and the buyer will even let you stay in the house after settlement for a few days or even a few months! Wow – how much better can it be? STOP!!!! This is not a dream – it is the beginning of a nightmare.

When you go to settlement, the buyer is going to ask for an escrow deposit to guarantee that if there are any problems with the house when you move out, that there will be money for the buyer to make the repairs.  Imagine if the moving company knocks a hole in the wall as it is moving your concert grand piano out of your old house.  You have the contract with the moving company – not the buyer.  The buyer can’t easily argue with the movers to repair the wall, and you are out of the picture now.  Escrows can be as low as a couple of hundred dollars and as high as five or ten thousand dollars. 

If the house is empty before settlement, the buyer comes in for his or her walk through, typically an hour before settlement and on the way to the bank to get the certified check for the remaining funds.  The buyer is psyched and dazed at the prospect that this glorious house is about to become his house and not yours.  The walk through is brief. Does the stove turn on? Does the toilet leak? Are the walls still standing – great – check, check, check! Lets get to settlement and buy a house!  

Buyer after settlement

If the seller stays in the house after settlement for a few days, then the real walk through is entirely another matter.   The buyer has lots of time to do the walk through – now he is calm and focused on whether the seller has hurt the buyer’s new house.  Is there any paint chipped? Are the curtain rods there? What about that spot on the floor? That wasn’t there at contract ratification!!!!  Oh dear – the buyer needs $1000 for a new floor!  Does the washing machine rattle with heavy wet towels? Definately that isn’t working condition!

How is this resolved? First the buyer directs his agent to ask for a portion of the escrow.   The seller is outraged.  That spot on the floor was definately there since Lyndon Johnson was in the White House.  The contract provided that only the blinds conveyed and not the curtain rods!  The washing machine works even if it does shake a little.  No payments!  This goes back and forth for a few days, and finally the title attorney is called in to arbitrate.  Eventually everyone makes nice and life goes back to normal.

As the seller, maybe a rent back or post settlement occupancy is really necessary, but make sure that it truly is necessary – that it is your only option.  Every post settlement occupancy that I have been involved with this year in Kenwood Forest has been contentious.  Buyers feel like they are paying alot of money for their new homes and they want to make sure that those homes are in good condition.  The post settlement occupancy gives some buyers a last bite at that apple, a last chance to save a little more money – at the seller’s expense.  If you are a seller, just be careful.  Make sure you really need that post settlement occupancy – and be prepared to really pay for it.

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