Final Walkthrough

[profhoff]

Suppose you’re a buyer who has now released all contingencies and is preparing for the final walkthrough. What happens in the state of California if during that walkthrough you discover damage that wasn’t there before, e.g. the seller removed some of their furniture or free-standing appliances and in the process damaged, say, the floor or the walls?

Since all the contingencies have been removed, what kind of recourse, if any, would the buyer have?

[sdrealtor]

Dont close and/or ask for a credit or funds to be held in escrow until its resolved. Had this happen to a client today. Thats what we are doing. Happens all the time. Once you close you lose any leverage so work something out before you do

[mike92104]

We went through this as well. The sellers took a nice oven that we had stipulated would have to stay. They also took the really nice low flow toilet that was there when we first saw the house. I think they were betting that we would let it go since the short sale process took 9 months. They thought I was crazy when I refused to close, but they forked over $1000 for us to purchase a stove and toilet we wanted.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=mike92104]We went through this as well. The sellers took a nice oven that we had stipulated would have to stay. They also took the really nice low flow toilet that was there when we first saw the house. I think they were betting that we would let it go since the short sale process took 9 months. They thought I was crazy when I refused to close, but they forked over $1000 for us to purchase a stove and toilet we wanted.[/quote]

Good for YOU in holding to your guns, mike92104! Some of these SS “sellers” are scumbags. Even after not making payments for multiple months/years, they feel “entitled” to remove items when they finally vacate which are legally appurtenant to their property (and in their contract to convey). This is often after they have removed all the cash they had in the property and then some in the form of refi cash-out/2nd, 3rd TD/HELOC. It disgusts me when these “opportunists” can successfully pull these shenanigans on an innocent buyer who is trying to do their credit score a favor, obviously AFTER they have already fleeced their lender(s) big time.

Again, the root cause is “lender malaise.”

[Author]

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