. . . we think. After the home inspection, which revealed that the house needed some repairs, and after the lender's appraisal, which appraised the house at $37,000 less than our agreed-upon selling price and revealed the house to be two hundred and fifty square feet smaller than the sellers represented it to be, we amended our offer and sent it, along with a request for repairs, to the sellers yesterday.
Today we got their response. They offered to knock $4,000 -- that's four, not forty thousand dollars -- off of the original selling price, and refused to make any of the requested repairs, with the sole exception of fixing a running toilet in the back room.
They might as well have faxed us back a page that said nothing but "NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAAAHHH ... WE CAN'T HEAAAAAAAAAAAAR YOU!!!!!" in big, bold block letters. What part of your asking price is now unsupportable and unfinancible didn't you guys understand? The inside of the house is beautiful and tastefully finished, but they seem to expect that to carry the day against all logic and sense -- and the absence or presence of updated systems and repairs don't seem to matter to them at all (probably since you can't boast that you got your new roof at Pottery Barn, or that the formerly-open drain pipe beneath the floor that you can't see was capped by authentic reproduction plumbing fixtures from Restoration Hardware).
There is a chance that we can still pull this deal out of the fire; our lending company is open to having a second appraisal done by a third party. We've communicated through our agent that if the sellers can find an appraiser who truly appreciates their shining historical gem for what it is, and if that appraiser raises the appraised price to a level that they find acceptable, and if that appraisal is accepted by our lender, we're willing to entertain staying in the deal.
Although what I'm really hoping for is that the second appraiser will value the house exactly like the first appraiser did, and that these folks will get a cold glass of reality sloshed in their face. And if that doesn't change their tune, and they still refuse to budge, they can join the people who own the Pasadena house (which, weeks later, is still on the market) at the monthly barbecue for the Southern California chapter of Overly Optimistic Idiots Holding Onto Unsellable Houses.
(Did I mention that these people are moving to Wisconsin next month? And that they wanted to close escrow as quickly as possible? Who are they to be playing Extreme Hardball?)
Posted by Kevin at August 28, 2004 05:43 PM