Once the purchase agreement is finished, you have a lot of work ahead of you. If you put together the calendar as discussed above, make sure all the dates entered on your calendar are met. If an item can’t be completed within the agreed-upon time frame, send the notice to the seller and extend the agreement.
If anything gets off-kilter as you go through the process, turn to your attorney for advice.
It is not unusual for a building not to pass the physical inspection. If you find the building requires an expensive repair, you should notify the seller in writing and ask for a deduction in the purchase price. Depending on the seller and any number of unknown reasons, the seller will decide whether to make a reduction in the price. If the seller won’t provide a credit, you have to decide if you want to pay for this repair yourself or move to cancel the agreement.
Recently, I was working with a client, and we found the entire roof was bad. The cost for repair was $125,000. We requested that the seller pay for half of this cost. It is only fair, as the buyer was not expecting this type of repair. The seller didn’t agree, so my client was released from the contract. Make sure that if this happens to you, you get it in writing. Many months later while talking to another agent, I learned that the neighbor had come in with a higher offer than the seller had accepted from my client, so they had no incentive to negotiate.
If everything is worked out, the next step is the closing!
