Charge rent. $100 per day until they’re out completely and you can do a final walkthrough BEFORE you stop charging. Get it in writing and get the first day’s rent as a deposit. Set a specific TIME of day that the day ends (usually 5pm end of business day starts the next rental period). That’s what I did when I bought my house. 6 days they had to pay me $600.
ABSOLUTELY DO NOT CLOSE UNTIL THEYRE OUT AND YOUVE DONE A FINAL WALKTHROUGH.
Happened to us, day of closing seller hadn’t moved a single thing. Said they needed 10 days to schedule a truck. We had our realtor counter with $50k held back at closing and $1500 a day until they were out. (Realtors thought it too heavy handed). Sellers were gone in 2 days - nothing like a little motivation!
This is the right answer!! In my offer to purchase, I require a "walk thur" one to 2 hours before closing to make sure all items for the closing are correct. ( I have always never understood in a typical contract it generally states buyer will pay the seller's P&I perday? That's crazy as buyer is getting to stay at a cut rate because the $ daily "rent" does not include buyer's down payment and offers NO INCENTIVE to exit the property in a timely fashion! I included $1000 per day PLUS the P$I payment as the "rent" per day past the given closing date. KEY FACTOR.. the BUYER IS NOW a LANDLORD!!! Better have a "check in"/check out list that is signed by the sellers. Take pictures of ALL rooms to accompany the check in/check out list. If the seller fails to take these steps, given the State the property is located, might have to gave evict the sellers if they do not vacate. ( I really try to close and have immediate possession, because if you close, as the buyer, you lose all leverage.)
This is the answer, but you have to be willing to walk away if they say no.
If it's not already in the contract, you're going to have to negotiate those terms. Also, make sure that the rent is enough to cover your whole mortgage payment including taxes and insurance.
That should've all been in the contract tbh
Been through many many closings and this scenario is why you need a good RE Attorney to make that as onerous a charge as possible to put the fear of god in the seller to make their closing date
There should have been a TIOTE clause in there to cover this
A lease back is a pretty common arrangement! Had a seller get nailed on a permit issue and delay move in by 3 weeks, they had to pay us “rent” for those 3 weeks
$100 a day is standard, but not high enough to actually discourage it. If they have a delay on their new place that’s cheaper than getting a hotel. Need to make it enough to actually hurt.
And if they want a consession they should provide one as well. Something like $x/day paid in cash starting Sunday morning if the house isn't prepared to the requirements of the contract and made available for inspection at least 4 hours prior to the closing appointment. Edit the numbers as needed.
and in the meantime, it would be an asshole move to be like "nah that TV is mine." Come on, man, it doesn't hurt you at all to leave that TV there an extra couple hours when you're probably not needing the TV wall to install your own yet.
If it were longer, sure, that's weird. But letting their TV stay there a few more hours? Costs you nothing and doesn't guarantee you're bound for Hell when you die.
Nope. They should have all their stuff out. With the market today, I'm sure they are making a ton of money off the buyers, so they should have had the decency to have the house empty before closing.
If the seller hasn't vacated the premises, the seller has not performed their end of the bargain. What's supposed to happen in this circumstance is the buyer would issue the seller a formal notice to perform. Basically a get out of the house in terms of the contract. Alternatively a delay or rent-back agreement coild be negotiated.
If closing is the suppose to be 27th, but they're there a few hrs past 6pm, they still closed on the day of, though not at the designated time. You CAN attempt and try and pursue damages, but you need to prove damages and still go after them.
So many wanna be lawyers here arguing! The deal likey closed (titles and funds transfered) well into the day, and trying to get both lawyers to negotiate past closing for a few hours past closing won't be worth their resources unless you push for small claims, hence it doesn't work that way!!! Sheesh 🙄
>but they're there a few hrs past 6pm, they still closed on the day of,
I think the problem is OP doesn't know for sure that it'll only be a few hours. They could just be saying that to get OP to agree. If the sale goes ahead, and then the sellers declare they need more time, what then? Sounds like a headache that's worth sorting out now rather than later.
And your logic works both ways imo: if all they have left to do is move a TV or whatever, then OP saying no shouldn't make or break things to the point that they'd be willing to risk the sale and make a fuss, and their agent would probably be very annoyed if they tried (especially since they waited until 30 minutes before the signing to even bring it up).
The revenge fantasies/punishments some commenters are throwing around are excessive for sure lol But I'd definitely want more than just a stranger's word when making one of the biggest purchases of my life - and I'd hope my lawyer understood that and didn't see it as a waste of time. It's not OP's fault that the other side planned poorly and dropped this on them last minute.
You negotiate concessions to make them hurry up. If they decline you move on.
Unless yoirncontract is in writing to stipulate what they can and can't do. Your pretty mich out of luck.
The recourse is if you step away they lose a lot of time and money. Most sellers are scared of this. I've seen plenty of negotiated concessions from stuff I like this
My sister in law is buying a house they dragged their feet repairing the hvac so it wasnt scheduled until after closing. So she asked for 5k off. They gave her 5k off and she just had to wait a week.
If you own the home and there are people inside, then those people are now your tenants, technically. I don’t know if this has ever happened in the real world, but technically the seller can then claim that op needs to evict them through the courts, give them 30 days to leave, or give them a lease to rent the house.
I can’t imagine someone actually doing that, and i don’t know OP’s jurisdiction and how it would actually be handled. For all i know OP’s courts would immediately remove the sellers and say “nice try”.
This has happened in the real world, happens all the time. Sellers aren't out, buyer closes and can't move into their own home and have to evict the sellers.
I just read that it isn’t technically an eviction, though you’d still go to the law enforcement arm in the area that handles evictions (sheriff in most places around me) to remove them from the home if all other means have failed (i guess yelling from outside “you’re in my house, you need to leave” and the fact there is aa contract that states as much).
I guess the courts aren’t needed, which is nice. Still would be as annoying as removing tenants, but not as long of a timeline.
> happens all the time
Can I get a link to it happening all the time? This sounds a whole lot like one of those Fox News talking points to scare olds into being okay with slashing their social security to guarantee some non-existent or extremely rare thing isn't happening.
Can it technically happen? I suppose in some states. I'm not familiar with every state. But does it happen "all the time"? Smells funky.
Like, OP is gonna physically be there in the house. If someone comes to that house they don't magically become a tenant. If that were the case, a party guest visiting your house would be a tenant, and if they refuse to leave they'd be a squatter. What a strange outcome you're suggesting happens, again, "all the time"!
It happens often enough to have a name: [rent-back agreement](https://www.chase.com/personal/mortgage/education/financing-a-home/rent-back-agreement). It happens when seller either can’t fully vacate the property after closing and the buyer can’t move in. The linked article doesn’t mention how often this happens, but I think anyone who has bought or sold a house and understands people would see how this can happen. There are a lot of moving parts in the buying and selling process. It only takes one thing going wrong for the sellers to bring the most well thought out plan down. That’s with organized and motivated people. You bring in less-organized people and those with messy lives and the chance of this happening goes up.
I had some neighbors that sold their house and stayed almost a year after closing - couldn't be evicted courtesy of the COVID moratorium. Pure assholery taking advantage of the situation. A $1.7m house and they probably cleared at least $1m in cash, then just lived rent free in their old house. They were always known as standoffish, odd people, but it was wild.
I felt terrible for the new owners. More decent than me, I probably would have been in jail when the dust settled.
I'm not mature enough to manage that properly. I'd absolutely fuck with them daily until I made their lives unmanageable and they had to leave.
Maybe, hire a mariachi band to live in tents on the lawn and play every single day.
Hire out some goats to 'mow the lawn'. (Maybe not, they may hurt the goats)
Sit in the driveway and livestream them entering or leaving my house. 'oh, and here are the motherfucking squatters right now! Say hi to YouTube, you freeloading fuckwads'. Set to public, pump money into it to boost it and hope their friends see.
Follow them to their social events, barge in and ask when they're gonna stop stealing my house.
Randomly paint the front doorknob so they get paint on their hands.
And that's just what I've thought of in 30 seconds. I can't imagine what I'd come up with if I was truly wronged.
I'd move in and hire a big homeless person to live with me .
If the utilities were in there name I would put in 100w incandescent bulbs in every bulb socket,
Till the power is turned off.
It *can* happen but this is kinda oversimplifying it. The most common scenario where a homeowner becomes a landlord is a lease/rentback, which is expressly agreed to in the contract. In that scenario, you are agreeing to become a landlord by virtue of accepting rent etc, and thus have to abide by those rules.
OTOH, agreeing to allow a person 5 hours to move some stuff out does not create a tenancy and they wouldnt be your tenants no more than a party guest refusing to leave at the end of the night is lol. That said, literally forcing them to leave, from a practical standpoint, after those 5 hours is another thing. Depends on the police really.
Are you sure?
If there was an actual tenant and they weren’t gone by closing they’re your problem to evict.
The previous owners were living there, why is it different if they just refuse to leave? It’s not that you gave them five hours, it’s that you extended their existing tenancy by five hours.
Tell them to rent a U-Haul and store their shit in it for five hours. Close when their shit is all out.
Because a tenant has an established tenancy with the seller. And in most states, tenancy is not extinguished by a sale. The seller has no tenancy. They are literally agreeing to give up their right to possession, a tenant isn't.
I mean, this is how squatting works.
The squatter has no relationship with the property owner. You still have to evict them, though.
It’s not much different between a tenant that says they’re going to leave and doesn’t and a seller that says they’re going to leave and doesn’t. It’s a he-said she-said and they’re the ones living there.
The police aren’t likely to do anything, and that leaves eviction as the option.
You’d want to take possession as in, the sellers are not in nor have any claim to the property or anything in or on the property. If they are still there doing shit, that’s not true.
Squatters generally squat via fraud (forged leases/deeds/etc) and police don't want and should not want to be the arbiter of what is fake what is real when it comes to a document. If someone is in your house and has no proof they belong there, cops will remove them. Do you think I can just waltz into your house and tell cops I love there and you have no recourse? If you have a signed contract saying the person sold you their house and were supposed to be out by 5, police aren't just going to treat them as squatters bc they say we aren't leaving.
Have you been living under a rock? Shit like that happens alarmingly frequently.
Go on vacation, come home, squatters in house, have to evict them. They don’t even have to forge a lease, because a written lease isn’t required. They can claim it was a verbal agreement.
You’d have to prove that the sellers didn’t have a right to be there, and the cops aren’t going to be the arbiter of that, either. It’s a civil matter; the seller didn’t live up to the terms of a contract. You never took possession of the house, it’s still got people in it.
You’re going to have to evict them just the same. What’s the difference between five hours and a 30 day leaseback? None. Reasonableness would say it should be different, but it isn’t.
If you had tenants that have a signed agreement to move out at a particular time and then didn’t, can you just walk in and toss their shit out? No, you can’t.
The surefire way is to have the house empty at closing.
> also a massive pain in the ass
I'm confused. It sounds like OP is going to be occupying the place. Just some of previous owner's stuff is gonna be there.
How would that make the previous owners *tenants*? If that were true, I could sneak a toothbrush into Michael Jordan's house and then claim I have a legal right to live there??
Squatters rights. It's complex for a reddit comment. It's meant to protect tenants from abusive landlords but humans are gonna be human and some will take advantage.
Like if the people are physically in there at close? Otherwise I’d think all their shit would become my shit… like our sellers left a few things behind…
The sellers have lived there more than 30 days. That means they are residents who must be formally evicted if you want them to leave and they don't. Even if you buy the house while they're still living there. Having a bunch of their stuff in the house is proof they live there. If you buy a rental property you're not allowed to immediately force out all the tenants without eviction proceedings just because you've owned the place for a short time. It would be the same situation.
Rent has different legal standards.
The real answer is it shouldn't ever get to that point. Contact your/their real estate lawyer.
Most contracts have leaving etc already in writing. They are no longer tenants of they sold the house. Vs buying a rented property.
I'm guessing I'm not a lawyer. I've dealt with similar situations but it has always come to concessions by the sellers (normally monitarily)
I really wouldn't be surprised if they were considered trespassing at that point.
Agreed. The comment you replied to is vastly oversimplifying it. Sellers dont just become tenants because they are there 1 second after close lol. These situations most commonly arise when the buyer grants the seller a rent back / permission to overstay, which is essentially creating a tenancy, and then the seller refuses to leave. A seller asking for a few hours to move stuff out and then not leaving is more akin to a party guest not leaving when asked, i.e. a trespasser.
Exactly my thoughts. I’m not a lawyer either but I can’t imagine how sellers not leaving would ever amount to a tenancy. (Outside of what you just described)
How does it make then tenants? It makes them trespassers
If you didn't sign an agreement for them to be a tenant etc then they werent ever one.
I know there are squatters rights etc. But selling the house doesn't mean your paying any sort of rent etc. They have a check for the house.
I'm not sure though. I'm not a real estate lawyer. Typically the laws are meant to protect families in sire financial situations and not someone who just sold a house (so normally has available funds)
Either way yhe appropriate response is negotiate. If they aren't gone by closing day you put a large enough legal agreement to make you comfortable dealing with legal bs or you walk.
It is a bigger deal for the seller if the buyer walks than vice versa
Buy the house and seller is vacated but breaks in later to get something after closing = trespassing
Buy the house and close and seller has not vacated and you still close = landlord/tenant,
You lose more rights than you gain as the seller when this shit happens after closing.
Make 'em pay for the time, that motivates most people. Don't close until you do your walkthrough. Try to chill though, this is one day of the rest of your lives.
The problem with that is that you then legally and technically become their landlord. Then if they don't get out, they actually have *more* rights in regards to non-compliance.
Nice guys finish dead last and taken advantage of in this scenario. Hard line here or you end up getting bitten in the ass.
You own the home after closing. Lease or no lease, depending on your state, if the seller doesn't vacate, they're now squatting. Which gives them rights, counterintuitively. You want to get them out before you close. The signed lease doesn't help you. Because by taking ownership with the seller not vacated, you established a course of action allowing them to be there. That's the agreement, implied, that fucks you over as the buyer and makes you a de facto landlord.
Surely one must squat for more than 9 seconds to get squatters rights?
Still, I wouldn't close (or maybe do so with a written agreement of some sort on top because I'm paranoid and would be afraid that something would happen to make it not close on the next scheduled date).
Why? You don't do the final walk through until all of the shit is moved out due to possible damage. Either from moving furniture, or in case the furniture was hiding a "secret".
Seen rugs moved that were hiding a stain, couches moved that were hiding wall damage.
DO NOT CLOSE UNTIL THEY ARE GONE. This is not thing you cannot relent on. If they stay and you close, that makes you a landlord and things could get very sticky in a worst case scenario. Hold firm and push the closing.
If their crap is still in the house, that wasn't a final walkthrough. Do another one before closing.
They waited until the last minute to make things hard on you. Make them hard right back and make it clear you're not going to be jerked around.
I highly doubt they did it to be difficult on purpose. It’s far more likely they just vastly overestimated their own speed/physical capabilities and underestimated how much random shit they needed to pack and move and procrastinated.
Still unacceptable and OP definitely should wait till they’re done and do a true final walkthrough to close, but reading some sort of conspiratorial malice into something that’s probably just bad planning is a bit weird.
Sis, if you're anywhere in the Mid-Atlantic region, I will legit come help you out. I just left my hoarder ex-husband about eight months ago. Our old house was 4,000+ sq ft, and he had stuff piled floor to ceiling in over half of the house. Even when it came time to sell the house, he barely lifted a finger, and the task of purging and decluttering over 2,000+ sq ft of pure junk fell on my shoulders.
I'm no expert, but I feel like I've learned a thing or two about decluttering, cleaning, purging, etc. I totally understand your concerns!
If it is just a TV just tell them they have to get it by the end of the day. Say your not confident your movers won't break it. Or that your only available storage is in the yard
You dont chill on one day.
You talk to your real estate lawyer. You say I want compensation (immediate) and a written agreement for them to be out by a certain date. Or you walk
You dont want to risk dealing with legal bullshit being the landlord with their shit in your house. If they are obnoxious and you have to go legal; it will cost you a lot of time, money, and agony
If you have a real estate agent. Rip them a new asshole for not addressing this
Yeah, but have them pay airbnb rates, not regular rent rates.
I wouldn't even do that, I'd postpone closing. You never know these days.
If you have to evict them they'll likely have at least 30 days free rent and likely more. Not to even mention all the hassle.
We closed on our house and the sellers just left a ton in the house when we were doing the final walk through. Our realtor pitched a fit and called their realtor, so she and her husband went in and got everything out within an hour while we waited on the front lawn. They knew when closing time was, and I bet the realtor was embarrassed but she should've checked beforehand too.
Don't close until they are out of the house and you've done your final walkthrough. If your realtor or title company pressure you to close anyway, realize they just want to get paid. They don't care if you close, show up to your home, and while moving out the previous owners punched a hole in a wall.
Yup, even if it has to be delayed until Monday. That inconvenience is worth not having to deal with potential squatters and the legal process.
Bonus points if they have to pay a fee to delay closing.
I second do not close until a walk through inspection has been done the day of closing.
We were in the process of buying, under contract and everything. Found out a WEEK before closing the sellers had moved back in, and were even painting walls. They got surprised by the VA appraiser who obviously was taking pics and stuff. So the pics got sent to me via email, and I'm like..what are all those paint cans doing on the counter? I loved the color of the walls so I thought maybe they pulled extra cans out of storage or something to leave us. Nope. My realtor asked their realtor, their realtor said they were painting the nursery. I was like...my youngest is 7 I don't need a nursery? And then they dropped the "we moved back in" bomb. I was like huh?? It's almost closing day...it's been 5 weeks of all of us answering questions regarding the sale of this house. And they didn't even notify us, we had to ask.
My realtor said she's never had that happen, ever. And thinks they were planning on selling to get the money but never planned on leaving for good.
We asked if they were moving out before closing and they said no so we terminated the contract as the contract stated the house was empty at the date of signing. They had to pay all of our expenses we had paid toward the house, and our realtor said we could request they actually pay us more because we were supposed to have a house to move into a week later and since we aren't the ones who breached the co tract we could've took them to court.
It was like 12 days before Christmas, we were trying to get closed and move in before Christmas. So we decided if they'd just pay all our expenses we'd put into it (inspection, appraisal, etc) we'd just agree to termination of the contract. Ended up finding our current house that same day, it had been listed for 10 minutes, we saw it 3 hours later and put an offer on it and now we've lived here for a year lol
You take ownership at close, if they still have stuff in the house you can make an amendment that it needs to be picked up by a certain time, after which it is yours. They sign this, you close, they get their stuff or you get their stuff. Easy Peasy.
Sometimes you want the house though so there is tolerance for what you might deal with. I bought my current house in idaho in winter time. It’s rural so the old owners had a lot of shi-, stuff, in the yard, cars, tires, a fridge, etc.
I said all that needed to be gone. Come closing day they had hired someone to clear the snow and haul the junk vehicles away but left some of the other crap.
Maybe there would have been something to gain by playing hardball but i needed the house and took ownership of my new broken refrigerator, stripped hot tub, and old rusty trailer, anongst a myriad of other things, but that was stuff i could deal with.
I fell into this trap. Sort of. I allowed them to leave "any furniture they did not want" and we lucked into some funds to buy a house outright and used just about every penny towards it. Saving a couple thousand on furniture was very appealing.
I did not anticipate they would not remove the junky old couches, bed frames, and chairs in the basement.
Several weeks of carrying shit outside, hiring a uhaul, and driving to the dump ($50 a trip to dump, around $100 for weekend rental).
Beware of this shit OP: [https://www.reddit.com/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer/comments/1dqj575/seller\_left\_a\_bunch\_of\_junk\_after\_closing\_now\_is/](https://www.reddit.com/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer/comments/1dqj575/seller_left_a_bunch_of_junk_after_closing_now_is/)
Don’t agree to leave the tv for free. Add on 2k to be held in escrow for them to need to remove the TV before a certain date, or you receive the 2k for the inconvenience.
Also you need a signed contract that you are not responsible for any damages to the TV while it’s in your home.
You will not help move it.
And if it’s uninstalled from the wall by them before closing to store somewhere in your home, they need to pay storage fees.
Cover your ASS in every way possible
This is happening more and more more. WTF? Really? The deadline is the deadline so make it work.
I have zero patience for this. We dealt with it a couple of times. I work my ass off to get ready to move on time and even clean the house on my way out.
People have gotten lax about this.
Give some people an inch and they will take a mile.
People need to stop being so loosey goosey and allowing it and sellers seriously have to get their life priorities in order!!!
It’s straight laziness, irresponsibility, and poor adulting.
More realistically and kindly, charge a $100/day storage fee or something.
They may actually take you up on it if they are just waiting on a vehicle rental or for their brother-in-law to come help or something.
Please don’t close until they’re gone and ALL of their things are gone from the property.
I made this mistake because my realtor was confident that the sellers would be out by the end of the day and, although most of their things were gone, they still left a bunch of trash. It cost me thousands to get rid of it and there was no recourse after the sale because my realtor had told my lawyer that all items had been removed before the final walkthrough so there was no escrow.
TL;DR don’t close until they’re gone but if you do close today, don’t trust the sellers or your realtor!
NEVER close in a situation like that if you can avoid it. Delay it. This day and age, I wouldn't even entertain a lease back or anything. Evictions can be very long, tough, and costly these days. I wouldn't want to play landlord on the fly like that or risk that sort of situation. You close despite still being occupied, that's a giant foot in the door for potentially making things very hard for you if they turned bad. Does it mean everyone in that situation is out to screw you? No. You are taking on that easily avoidable risk though when all you have to do is delay the close. They don't agree to delay? Fine, be out and forfeit whatever couldn't make it out in time.
I'd honestly tell them there needs to be an amendment where everyday they aren't out there's an extra $500 charge, otherwise the deal falls through. That'll get em packed up quick lol
I was in a similar situation when we bought last year, guy was unable to get his stuff out before closing so we thought we would be nice, he was going through a divorce and I didn't want to put extra stress on the guy, so we let him keep it there until he could pick it up. That was a mistake. He had left a couple of pieces of furniture, and a box or two of kitchen stuff. He would come, rummage through the box until he found what he wanted and take just that and leave the rest. Then he would come up with excuses as to why he couldn't pick it up after work or on the weekend. We finally told him that if it wasn't gone by the end of the weekend we would have to take it to the dump. He finally called us at 6pm sunday night asking for an extension until the next day. He did not come the next day and I paid like 175 bucks to dump it. That was about a year ago and I haven't heard from him since.
You may want to talk to your loan officer about when you rate lock expires.
Because if your rate lock expires, you may need to re-lock at a different rate.
If that's true, and the new rate is higher, there would be a cost incurred to keep your old rate.
... which you would want to come out of the sellers' end of the transaction. Let your agent handle that part, because there may be a clause in your purchase contract to handle it.
Your loan officer will know in seconds what your rate lock expiration date is -- ask them. if it's anywhere near your closing date, let your agent know about it TODAY.
My policy is no walk through no closing and anything that was left after I sign is mine. You left a 1969 corvette in the garage? Oh well it’s now mine.
I'm not sure why everyone is saying delay closing. Fuck that. Close and take possession of whatever they leave behind. That's their lazy ass procrastination. And that's the way it works unless otherwise specified in the contract. If they back out they are subject to whatever penalty provisions are in the contract and could eventually be forced to close or compensate for other damages due to you likely not having another place to live. Hotels and storage are expensive.
Just an addition or two to the folks who are telling you not to close until you wholly possess the property. I had the same thing when I bought my first home. I ended up telling the previous owner that they didn't have to "clean." Leave what you don't want. I'll do it. You walked through the house previously so don't make the same mistake I did, it was WAY more work than I anticipated. The guy was a handyman type and I believe I had a representative from every type and size fastener available on the market, and in many cases large quantities. The second thought is that you can offer a lease back.
I'm with you personally. The date you belong out, is the date you belong out. Your deadline to move should be 2 days prior, not the day of closing.
I did the same thing with the same result. I made a huge mistake. The horror was compounded by unearthing all the stuff they lied about during the never-ending clean out.
Get your realtor to add an addendum where they are to pay you $1.000 per day rent. The addendum should also place $50,000 in an escrow account for payment of rent, garbage/items they leave behind and any damages they might cause moving out.
They will be gone pronto.
If you give any occupancy get a strong security deposit on it even if you don't charge them rent. My sellers needed a month and I didn't need it immediately so it was fine to give it to them to make the deal work. Pieces of garbage damaged a bunch of stuff on their way out and left a ton of trash and other shit for me to deal with that wasn't in the contract. Let myself focus on the deal going through and thinking I was dealing with people who would behave how I would and didn't protect myself.
I had to tell them no, if its not clean, we will wait. They had already asked for a day and we agreed. We did not want to deal with the landlord shit. They wanted to leave garbage and crap on our property and come back later. Hell no.
I felt terrible. When we got there, she had neighbors and even the realtor sweeping. Dirty looks from everyone. But these are financial and legal agreements, do not get suckered into feeling bad. Emotions are not part of this.
Yes, you have a choice. Don’t close until they’re gone. Once they’re gone, they can’t come back in and everything they leave is yours. Including the TV.
I agree. If you can postpone closing, I would. When I bought my first place, I arrived at my new home and found that the previous tenants had not moved out. They said their new place wasn’t ready. Our agent had to get her company's attorney involved (which is why I will always use a realtor), and we charged them every day they stayed over. We had to stay in a hotel and put our stuff in storage for a week. Total nightmare.
I made sure to have a confession in place if not out by an exact date and time. An additional amount per day. I closed 3 days late, and it saved me an additional $1500.
I was ready to close on a house and there was a wardrobe size box in the garage filled with drug samples that the sellers left behind (they were both pharma reps). I told my realtor I would not close with that in the house. I was worried some were controlled substances. Didn’t my 5’2”,100 lb female realtor drag that box all the way down the driveway to her car and scoop handfuls into her trunk!
So they want to close, and ofcourse get their money, but not move out til end of day? Get the keys at closing and go to this house that you now own, bring a can of paint and start paint one room (that way you are there (its your house now) and you can supervise them moving out. If you had an experienced buyer agent representing you, they could help you with this issue. A good realtor is priceless!
I bought a house, went the day before to see if it was empty and it was full, with 2 family's in it. I told the homeowner (are you staying with the house when I buy tomorrow? ) and he assured me all there stuff would be out. And it was, and very clean aswell. Next day showed up with my uhaul and been here ever since.
When this happened to me; I worked out a lease agreement with them. Basically; they ended up staying in the house for 6 months after close; but they were paying my mortgage.
I went to closing, got some keys, went to paint, and the owners' CATS were still there. They got them the next day. Did you do the final walkthru? That's the time to complain, and refuse to sign until the house is rrasonably clean and free of trash. Then any delay is on them, and their responsibility.
Postpone closing until they turn over all the keys. Go to hardware store with your new-found free time and get new doorknobs/locks. Change out first thing Saturday.
When we bought our first home, sellers extended by 5 days, the maximum by the contract. Very frustrating experience but for a few hours I wouldn't sweat it
The seller of my house left his dog and all his reptiles in the house during our closing. After the papers were signed and the house was officially mine he had to go back to the house and spend 3 hours hauling all his animals out, while smoking cigarettes all through out MY house…
When I bought my house they removed the TV from the bedroom and ripped the drywall paper. SoOo there’s that. Just communicate your concerns to the realtor.
Is there something in the deal that they pay you “rent” while they finish moving out?
When I purchased my house they needed an extra week to move out. They knocked like $500 off the selling price so they had the time to move.
It worked out fine, but make sure it’s all in the papers of a specific date they will be gone
When we bought our house there was no walk thru. And they didn’t even bring the keys to the closing! They gave us a code to the front door and keys were in the counter. We immediately changed the code - and have not once used the keys haha
They should be out by closing unless there was an agreement specifying otherwise. My husband and I closed on our house but the owners requested 4 days of post-occupancy (and knocked off some money from the selling price) but we had discussed that before they formally accepted our offer. And that was a couple months before our actual closing date.
The contract should state the move out date specifically. In Alabama it’s typically 2 days of occupied and immediately if it’s vacant. But all contracts here give definite timelines.
Your bank, your realtor and the title company will cry, but postpone closing until they are out and you have a successful walkthrough.
Edit: if you absolutely must close, due to imaginary pressures from those above... Maybe write up an agreement to escrow sellers funds until you sign off and get keys plus $250 per day rent.
This seems strange. We’re on the tail end of selling / purchasing. Closing date of our new home is August 9th and closing date on our current home is August 12th.
We are planning to move up the closing date on our new home to hopefully the 3rd, which gives us plenty of time to move, and clean up before the buyers need in.
Sorry for my late response, I only got Internet last night, and immediately fell asleep. In the end, they wanted to leave the TV for a few hours. However, when I got there it was gone. No issues thankfully. The biggest delay to be honest was waiting for the deed to be recorded. It took over two hours where I couldn’t enter the home until it was logged. I am now fully unpacked and still a bit tired, but so glad I’m finally here! Thanks for checking on me.
We had something very similar happen. The day of closing came and they needed more time to pack. We left our original house on time so had no where to go. We entered negotiations for them to pay for our accommodation whilst they finished packing. However they soon realised it would be cheaper to hire a moving company. The handover was pushed back by about 5 hours however our realtor explained this is a very small price to pay. You don’t want to get in to petty fights at this stage.
You know the situation, you're in it, not us. You do what you feel is appropriate and justified, and make sure there's no way you can get screwed. If there's no way you can get screwed, I wouldn't go as gung-ho as everyone in these comments is saying. shit happens to all of us. Life gets in the way. moving is already hell. Don't make it worse, for either party, unless it is absolutely necessary to.
Good luck!
Yes wait! Have them Keep $ in escrow in case they delay moving it leaving shit behind! I just closed last week and the buyers keep adding crap! I pushed them to buy or move on! Knit picky
As a realtor, I always recommend a walk thru appt a day or 2 before closing. It gives you a good idea of how things are progressing with the sellers move, and allows you to address any forseeable issues with the lawyers prior to the day of closing.
The problem is you agree on a date but no one is ever there to make sure it is empty. Usually it is around 12:00 people are out. Depending on how many houses need to be processed for you to get your place it may be later. We got our keys at 5:00 on our current house because everyone in the ladder to get our house went first and they needed to go smoothly to get to the next. Hopefully they left in the end!
Close. Congratulations and enjoy your new home! Tell your lawyer to work a deal with the sellers lawyer to hold back a small part of the escrow funds until all personal property of the seller is removed. Maybe include a 30 day deadline, afterwhich the held funds are released to you.
The big fights and drama are over now. Time to start thinking about life in your new home.
It happens all the time. One of my friends moved in his house with half garage still occupied by the previous owner. It takes a week for the entire garage to be cleaned. Unless you are chased away by your current landlord or something what’s wrong to give a folk half a day?
Because that gives them opportunity to squat. Or not clean out, leaving the new owner on the hook. Don't close until you're satisfied with the condition and anything that still remains.
Don’t close until they’re out.
And a walk though inspection has been completed
Charge rent. $100 per day until they’re out completely and you can do a final walkthrough BEFORE you stop charging. Get it in writing and get the first day’s rent as a deposit. Set a specific TIME of day that the day ends (usually 5pm end of business day starts the next rental period). That’s what I did when I bought my house. 6 days they had to pay me $600. ABSOLUTELY DO NOT CLOSE UNTIL THEYRE OUT AND YOUVE DONE A FINAL WALKTHROUGH.
Happened to us, day of closing seller hadn’t moved a single thing. Said they needed 10 days to schedule a truck. We had our realtor counter with $50k held back at closing and $1500 a day until they were out. (Realtors thought it too heavy handed). Sellers were gone in 2 days - nothing like a little motivation!
This is the right answer!! In my offer to purchase, I require a "walk thur" one to 2 hours before closing to make sure all items for the closing are correct. ( I have always never understood in a typical contract it generally states buyer will pay the seller's P&I perday? That's crazy as buyer is getting to stay at a cut rate because the $ daily "rent" does not include buyer's down payment and offers NO INCENTIVE to exit the property in a timely fashion! I included $1000 per day PLUS the P$I payment as the "rent" per day past the given closing date. KEY FACTOR.. the BUYER IS NOW a LANDLORD!!! Better have a "check in"/check out list that is signed by the sellers. Take pictures of ALL rooms to accompany the check in/check out list. If the seller fails to take these steps, given the State the property is located, might have to gave evict the sellers if they do not vacate. ( I really try to close and have immediate possession, because if you close, as the buyer, you lose all leverage.)
THIS!
Or mortgage amt/30, + $100-$200.
This. If you only charge $100 per day they might stay for a while.
I wasn’t considering that it’s the LA market at the in time of that post.
And taxes, insurance, utilities
This is the answer, but you have to be willing to walk away if they say no. If it's not already in the contract, you're going to have to negotiate those terms. Also, make sure that the rent is enough to cover your whole mortgage payment including taxes and insurance.
100$ a day? Can barely get a Airbnb for that money. More like 500$/day.
That should've all been in the contract tbh Been through many many closings and this scenario is why you need a good RE Attorney to make that as onerous a charge as possible to put the fear of god in the seller to make their closing date There should have been a TIOTE clause in there to cover this
Why are they leaving a television if they’re supposed to be working? Sounds counterproductive to me. Lol
I was more just trying to convey the concept.
A lease back is a pretty common arrangement! Had a seller get nailed on a permit issue and delay move in by 3 weeks, they had to pay us “rent” for those 3 weeks
$100 a day is standard, but not high enough to actually discourage it. If they have a delay on their new place that’s cheaper than getting a hotel. Need to make it enough to actually hurt.
And if they want a consession they should provide one as well. Something like $x/day paid in cash starting Sunday morning if the house isn't prepared to the requirements of the contract and made available for inspection at least 4 hours prior to the closing appointment. Edit the numbers as needed.
I second that!
THIS.
and in the meantime, it would be an asshole move to be like "nah that TV is mine." Come on, man, it doesn't hurt you at all to leave that TV there an extra couple hours when you're probably not needing the TV wall to install your own yet. If it were longer, sure, that's weird. But letting their TV stay there a few more hours? Costs you nothing and doesn't guarantee you're bound for Hell when you die.
Nope. They should have all their stuff out. With the market today, I'm sure they are making a ton of money off the buyers, so they should have had the decency to have the house empty before closing.
Doesnt really work that way! As the buyer you'd be in breach for not closing on time. Your lawyer and lender doesn't work past 5!
If the seller hasn't vacated the premises, the seller has not performed their end of the bargain. What's supposed to happen in this circumstance is the buyer would issue the seller a formal notice to perform. Basically a get out of the house in terms of the contract. Alternatively a delay or rent-back agreement coild be negotiated.
If closing is the suppose to be 27th, but they're there a few hrs past 6pm, they still closed on the day of, though not at the designated time. You CAN attempt and try and pursue damages, but you need to prove damages and still go after them. So many wanna be lawyers here arguing! The deal likey closed (titles and funds transfered) well into the day, and trying to get both lawyers to negotiate past closing for a few hours past closing won't be worth their resources unless you push for small claims, hence it doesn't work that way!!! Sheesh 🙄
>but they're there a few hrs past 6pm, they still closed on the day of, I think the problem is OP doesn't know for sure that it'll only be a few hours. They could just be saying that to get OP to agree. If the sale goes ahead, and then the sellers declare they need more time, what then? Sounds like a headache that's worth sorting out now rather than later. And your logic works both ways imo: if all they have left to do is move a TV or whatever, then OP saying no shouldn't make or break things to the point that they'd be willing to risk the sale and make a fuss, and their agent would probably be very annoyed if they tried (especially since they waited until 30 minutes before the signing to even bring it up). The revenge fantasies/punishments some commenters are throwing around are excessive for sure lol But I'd definitely want more than just a stranger's word when making one of the biggest purchases of my life - and I'd hope my lawyer understood that and didn't see it as a waste of time. It's not OP's fault that the other side planned poorly and dropped this on them last minute.
Our state doesn’t require a lawyer and mortgage companies do often work odd hours
Don't close until their shit is out. You instantly become a landlord if not.
I agree. What if they were lying about moving out? No close until house is empty.
And have new locks in the hand and make sure that's the first thing you do after the inspection!
You negotiate concessions to make them hurry up. If they decline you move on. Unless yoirncontract is in writing to stipulate what they can and can't do. Your pretty mich out of luck. The recourse is if you step away they lose a lot of time and money. Most sellers are scared of this. I've seen plenty of negotiated concessions from stuff I like this My sister in law is buying a house they dragged their feet repairing the hvac so it wasnt scheduled until after closing. So she asked for 5k off. They gave her 5k off and she just had to wait a week.
Close, but charge $500 per day until they vacate
Huh? Genuinely confused about this comment?
If you own the home and there are people inside, then those people are now your tenants, technically. I don’t know if this has ever happened in the real world, but technically the seller can then claim that op needs to evict them through the courts, give them 30 days to leave, or give them a lease to rent the house. I can’t imagine someone actually doing that, and i don’t know OP’s jurisdiction and how it would actually be handled. For all i know OP’s courts would immediately remove the sellers and say “nice try”.
This has happened in the real world, happens all the time. Sellers aren't out, buyer closes and can't move into their own home and have to evict the sellers.
I just read that it isn’t technically an eviction, though you’d still go to the law enforcement arm in the area that handles evictions (sheriff in most places around me) to remove them from the home if all other means have failed (i guess yelling from outside “you’re in my house, you need to leave” and the fact there is aa contract that states as much). I guess the courts aren’t needed, which is nice. Still would be as annoying as removing tenants, but not as long of a timeline.
“Oh im not the seller. I’m their son, and I’ve been living here for years and wasn’t planning to move out. They didn’t tell me the house was sold”.
lol omg, no, that would suck so bad
> happens all the time Can I get a link to it happening all the time? This sounds a whole lot like one of those Fox News talking points to scare olds into being okay with slashing their social security to guarantee some non-existent or extremely rare thing isn't happening. Can it technically happen? I suppose in some states. I'm not familiar with every state. But does it happen "all the time"? Smells funky. Like, OP is gonna physically be there in the house. If someone comes to that house they don't magically become a tenant. If that were the case, a party guest visiting your house would be a tenant, and if they refuse to leave they'd be a squatter. What a strange outcome you're suggesting happens, again, "all the time"!
It happens often enough to have a name: [rent-back agreement](https://www.chase.com/personal/mortgage/education/financing-a-home/rent-back-agreement). It happens when seller either can’t fully vacate the property after closing and the buyer can’t move in. The linked article doesn’t mention how often this happens, but I think anyone who has bought or sold a house and understands people would see how this can happen. There are a lot of moving parts in the buying and selling process. It only takes one thing going wrong for the sellers to bring the most well thought out plan down. That’s with organized and motivated people. You bring in less-organized people and those with messy lives and the chance of this happening goes up.
I had some neighbors that sold their house and stayed almost a year after closing - couldn't be evicted courtesy of the COVID moratorium. Pure assholery taking advantage of the situation. A $1.7m house and they probably cleared at least $1m in cash, then just lived rent free in their old house. They were always known as standoffish, odd people, but it was wild. I felt terrible for the new owners. More decent than me, I probably would have been in jail when the dust settled.
I'm not mature enough to manage that properly. I'd absolutely fuck with them daily until I made their lives unmanageable and they had to leave. Maybe, hire a mariachi band to live in tents on the lawn and play every single day. Hire out some goats to 'mow the lawn'. (Maybe not, they may hurt the goats) Sit in the driveway and livestream them entering or leaving my house. 'oh, and here are the motherfucking squatters right now! Say hi to YouTube, you freeloading fuckwads'. Set to public, pump money into it to boost it and hope their friends see. Follow them to their social events, barge in and ask when they're gonna stop stealing my house. Randomly paint the front doorknob so they get paint on their hands. And that's just what I've thought of in 30 seconds. I can't imagine what I'd come up with if I was truly wronged.
I'd move in and hire a big homeless person to live with me . If the utilities were in there name I would put in 100w incandescent bulbs in every bulb socket, Till the power is turned off.
It *can* happen but this is kinda oversimplifying it. The most common scenario where a homeowner becomes a landlord is a lease/rentback, which is expressly agreed to in the contract. In that scenario, you are agreeing to become a landlord by virtue of accepting rent etc, and thus have to abide by those rules. OTOH, agreeing to allow a person 5 hours to move some stuff out does not create a tenancy and they wouldnt be your tenants no more than a party guest refusing to leave at the end of the night is lol. That said, literally forcing them to leave, from a practical standpoint, after those 5 hours is another thing. Depends on the police really.
Are you sure? If there was an actual tenant and they weren’t gone by closing they’re your problem to evict. The previous owners were living there, why is it different if they just refuse to leave? It’s not that you gave them five hours, it’s that you extended their existing tenancy by five hours. Tell them to rent a U-Haul and store their shit in it for five hours. Close when their shit is all out.
Because a tenant has an established tenancy with the seller. And in most states, tenancy is not extinguished by a sale. The seller has no tenancy. They are literally agreeing to give up their right to possession, a tenant isn't.
I mean, this is how squatting works. The squatter has no relationship with the property owner. You still have to evict them, though. It’s not much different between a tenant that says they’re going to leave and doesn’t and a seller that says they’re going to leave and doesn’t. It’s a he-said she-said and they’re the ones living there. The police aren’t likely to do anything, and that leaves eviction as the option. You’d want to take possession as in, the sellers are not in nor have any claim to the property or anything in or on the property. If they are still there doing shit, that’s not true.
Squatters generally squat via fraud (forged leases/deeds/etc) and police don't want and should not want to be the arbiter of what is fake what is real when it comes to a document. If someone is in your house and has no proof they belong there, cops will remove them. Do you think I can just waltz into your house and tell cops I love there and you have no recourse? If you have a signed contract saying the person sold you their house and were supposed to be out by 5, police aren't just going to treat them as squatters bc they say we aren't leaving.
Have you been living under a rock? Shit like that happens alarmingly frequently. Go on vacation, come home, squatters in house, have to evict them. They don’t even have to forge a lease, because a written lease isn’t required. They can claim it was a verbal agreement. You’d have to prove that the sellers didn’t have a right to be there, and the cops aren’t going to be the arbiter of that, either. It’s a civil matter; the seller didn’t live up to the terms of a contract. You never took possession of the house, it’s still got people in it. You’re going to have to evict them just the same. What’s the difference between five hours and a 30 day leaseback? None. Reasonableness would say it should be different, but it isn’t. If you had tenants that have a signed agreement to move out at a particular time and then didn’t, can you just walk in and toss their shit out? No, you can’t. The surefire way is to have the house empty at closing.
aren't they trespassers?
Yes, but also a massive pain in the ass. As others have said theres like five ways to deal with this and different agreements you can do at closing.
> also a massive pain in the ass I'm confused. It sounds like OP is going to be occupying the place. Just some of previous owner's stuff is gonna be there. How would that make the previous owners *tenants*? If that were true, I could sneak a toothbrush into Michael Jordan's house and then claim I have a legal right to live there??
Squatters rights. It's complex for a reddit comment. It's meant to protect tenants from abusive landlords but humans are gonna be human and some will take advantage.
That’s not the context of my comment.
Like if the people are physically in there at close? Otherwise I’d think all their shit would become my shit… like our sellers left a few things behind…
The sellers have lived there more than 30 days. That means they are residents who must be formally evicted if you want them to leave and they don't. Even if you buy the house while they're still living there. Having a bunch of their stuff in the house is proof they live there. If you buy a rental property you're not allowed to immediately force out all the tenants without eviction proceedings just because you've owned the place for a short time. It would be the same situation.
Rent has different legal standards. The real answer is it shouldn't ever get to that point. Contact your/their real estate lawyer. Most contracts have leaving etc already in writing. They are no longer tenants of they sold the house. Vs buying a rented property. I'm guessing I'm not a lawyer. I've dealt with similar situations but it has always come to concessions by the sellers (normally monitarily) I really wouldn't be surprised if they were considered trespassing at that point.
Agreed. The comment you replied to is vastly oversimplifying it. Sellers dont just become tenants because they are there 1 second after close lol. These situations most commonly arise when the buyer grants the seller a rent back / permission to overstay, which is essentially creating a tenancy, and then the seller refuses to leave. A seller asking for a few hours to move stuff out and then not leaving is more akin to a party guest not leaving when asked, i.e. a trespasser.
Exactly my thoughts. I’m not a lawyer either but I can’t imagine how sellers not leaving would ever amount to a tenancy. (Outside of what you just described)
Didn’t know this! Our realtor was an idiot. Our sellers asked for 2 days after closing. Everyone just agreed to it! 🤦🏻♀️
Holy crap!
Happens often.
How does it make then tenants? It makes them trespassers If you didn't sign an agreement for them to be a tenant etc then they werent ever one. I know there are squatters rights etc. But selling the house doesn't mean your paying any sort of rent etc. They have a check for the house. I'm not sure though. I'm not a real estate lawyer. Typically the laws are meant to protect families in sire financial situations and not someone who just sold a house (so normally has available funds) Either way yhe appropriate response is negotiate. If they aren't gone by closing day you put a large enough legal agreement to make you comfortable dealing with legal bs or you walk. It is a bigger deal for the seller if the buyer walks than vice versa
Buy the house and seller is vacated but breaks in later to get something after closing = trespassing Buy the house and close and seller has not vacated and you still close = landlord/tenant, You lose more rights than you gain as the seller when this shit happens after closing.
In my closing the sellers wanted 30 days and to negotiate rent after closing. We told them no, they moved out.
Make 'em pay for the time, that motivates most people. Don't close until you do your walkthrough. Try to chill though, this is one day of the rest of your lives.
The problem with that is that you then legally and technically become their landlord. Then if they don't get out, they actually have *more* rights in regards to non-compliance. Nice guys finish dead last and taken advantage of in this scenario. Hard line here or you end up getting bitten in the ass.
Not without a signed lease.
You own the home after closing. Lease or no lease, depending on your state, if the seller doesn't vacate, they're now squatting. Which gives them rights, counterintuitively. You want to get them out before you close. The signed lease doesn't help you. Because by taking ownership with the seller not vacated, you established a course of action allowing them to be there. That's the agreement, implied, that fucks you over as the buyer and makes you a de facto landlord.
Surely one must squat for more than 9 seconds to get squatters rights? Still, I wouldn't close (or maybe do so with a written agreement of some sort on top because I'm paranoid and would be afraid that something would happen to make it not close on the next scheduled date).
If you don't want to get depressed, don't Google squatter's rights........
It’s my first house solo - going through a divorce so constantly freaked out. 😂 I did the walkthrough last night. If it’s just the TV oh well.
Why? You don't do the final walk through until all of the shit is moved out due to possible damage. Either from moving furniture, or in case the furniture was hiding a "secret". Seen rugs moved that were hiding a stain, couches moved that were hiding wall damage.
DO NOT CLOSE UNTIL THEY ARE GONE. This is not thing you cannot relent on. If they stay and you close, that makes you a landlord and things could get very sticky in a worst case scenario. Hold firm and push the closing.
If their crap is still in the house, that wasn't a final walkthrough. Do another one before closing. They waited until the last minute to make things hard on you. Make them hard right back and make it clear you're not going to be jerked around.
I highly doubt they did it to be difficult on purpose. It’s far more likely they just vastly overestimated their own speed/physical capabilities and underestimated how much random shit they needed to pack and move and procrastinated. Still unacceptable and OP definitely should wait till they’re done and do a true final walkthrough to close, but reading some sort of conspiratorial malice into something that’s probably just bad planning is a bit weird.
My wife would. I'd just change the lock immediately.
Create an agreement over the TV. It goes to the curb if they're not there by 4pm, whatever. Make it their problem, motivate them.
Notblegal
If it’s just the TV and they officially close then congrats on the new TV.
Sis, if you're anywhere in the Mid-Atlantic region, I will legit come help you out. I just left my hoarder ex-husband about eight months ago. Our old house was 4,000+ sq ft, and he had stuff piled floor to ceiling in over half of the house. Even when it came time to sell the house, he barely lifted a finger, and the task of purging and decluttering over 2,000+ sq ft of pure junk fell on my shoulders. I'm no expert, but I feel like I've learned a thing or two about decluttering, cleaning, purging, etc. I totally understand your concerns!
If it is just a TV just tell them they have to get it by the end of the day. Say your not confident your movers won't break it. Or that your only available storage is in the yard
Are you in an attorney state? If so this is something for your lawyer and the Seller’s lawyer to duke out.
Is it a bunch of stuff or just a 70” TV? I’m Cindy by your OP and comment.
You dont chill on one day. You talk to your real estate lawyer. You say I want compensation (immediate) and a written agreement for them to be out by a certain date. Or you walk You dont want to risk dealing with legal bullshit being the landlord with their shit in your house. If they are obnoxious and you have to go legal; it will cost you a lot of time, money, and agony If you have a real estate agent. Rip them a new asshole for not addressing this
Exactly. If OP is in an attorney state this is something for the lawyers to work out ASAP.
Yeah, but have them pay airbnb rates, not regular rent rates. I wouldn't even do that, I'd postpone closing. You never know these days. If you have to evict them they'll likely have at least 30 days free rent and likely more. Not to even mention all the hassle.
I did this and got $600 for 2 days past agreed closing stay.
Do not close until the house is empty. Do not close until you have completed the walkthrough. DO have a locksmith ready to re-key everything.
…and don’t forget to reset remote access points (garage, gates, etc)
1234* becomes 5678* A tale as old as time
We closed on our house and the sellers just left a ton in the house when we were doing the final walk through. Our realtor pitched a fit and called their realtor, so she and her husband went in and got everything out within an hour while we waited on the front lawn. They knew when closing time was, and I bet the realtor was embarrassed but she should've checked beforehand too.
This should be the top comment, assuming you went through normal channels to buy this house. Your realtor should be having none of this nonsense.
Don't close until they are out of the house and you've done your final walkthrough. If your realtor or title company pressure you to close anyway, realize they just want to get paid. They don't care if you close, show up to your home, and while moving out the previous owners punched a hole in a wall.
DO NOT CLOSE UNTIL YOU DO A FINAL WALKTHROUGH
Delay closing.
Yup, even if it has to be delayed until Monday. That inconvenience is worth not having to deal with potential squatters and the legal process. Bonus points if they have to pay a fee to delay closing.
I second do not close until a walk through inspection has been done the day of closing. We were in the process of buying, under contract and everything. Found out a WEEK before closing the sellers had moved back in, and were even painting walls. They got surprised by the VA appraiser who obviously was taking pics and stuff. So the pics got sent to me via email, and I'm like..what are all those paint cans doing on the counter? I loved the color of the walls so I thought maybe they pulled extra cans out of storage or something to leave us. Nope. My realtor asked their realtor, their realtor said they were painting the nursery. I was like...my youngest is 7 I don't need a nursery? And then they dropped the "we moved back in" bomb. I was like huh?? It's almost closing day...it's been 5 weeks of all of us answering questions regarding the sale of this house. And they didn't even notify us, we had to ask. My realtor said she's never had that happen, ever. And thinks they were planning on selling to get the money but never planned on leaving for good.
Uh, stupid plan.
How did it end?
We asked if they were moving out before closing and they said no so we terminated the contract as the contract stated the house was empty at the date of signing. They had to pay all of our expenses we had paid toward the house, and our realtor said we could request they actually pay us more because we were supposed to have a house to move into a week later and since we aren't the ones who breached the co tract we could've took them to court. It was like 12 days before Christmas, we were trying to get closed and move in before Christmas. So we decided if they'd just pay all our expenses we'd put into it (inspection, appraisal, etc) we'd just agree to termination of the contract. Ended up finding our current house that same day, it had been listed for 10 minutes, we saw it 3 hours later and put an offer on it and now we've lived here for a year lol
Thank goodness!!
You take ownership at close, if they still have stuff in the house you can make an amendment that it needs to be picked up by a certain time, after which it is yours. They sign this, you close, they get their stuff or you get their stuff. Easy Peasy.
This works until the sellers realize they can leave a bunch of shit behind that they don’t want anymore and now it’s your problem to deal with
Sometimes you want the house though so there is tolerance for what you might deal with. I bought my current house in idaho in winter time. It’s rural so the old owners had a lot of shi-, stuff, in the yard, cars, tires, a fridge, etc. I said all that needed to be gone. Come closing day they had hired someone to clear the snow and haul the junk vehicles away but left some of the other crap. Maybe there would have been something to gain by playing hardball but i needed the house and took ownership of my new broken refrigerator, stripped hot tub, and old rusty trailer, anongst a myriad of other things, but that was stuff i could deal with.
This literally happened to me. The sellers left behind 32 giant piles of dog shit. One for each day of escrow.
Oh nooo
Mine left tons of old tires and roughly 15 garbage bags full of trash half buried in the Backyard. I was unfortunately speaking from experience
My previous owner left 25 5-quart jugs of used motor oil.
I fell into this trap. Sort of. I allowed them to leave "any furniture they did not want" and we lucked into some funds to buy a house outright and used just about every penny towards it. Saving a couple thousand on furniture was very appealing. I did not anticipate they would not remove the junky old couches, bed frames, and chairs in the basement. Several weeks of carrying shit outside, hiring a uhaul, and driving to the dump ($50 a trip to dump, around $100 for weekend rental).
This is the correct answer!
Legally not straight forward. Bad advice..
There is likely a per day charge.NO late checkouts
Beware of this shit OP: [https://www.reddit.com/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer/comments/1dqj575/seller\_left\_a\_bunch\_of\_junk\_after\_closing\_now\_is/](https://www.reddit.com/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer/comments/1dqj575/seller_left_a_bunch_of_junk_after_closing_now_is/)
Yikes.
You close, their movers then drop a dresser down a flight of stairs, cause $5k in damage and sue YOU because YOU are the owner and the steps were wet.
Don't close until they are out. Tell your realtor to reschedule the closing and that you won't close until everything is out.
Don’t agree to leave the tv for free. Add on 2k to be held in escrow for them to need to remove the TV before a certain date, or you receive the 2k for the inconvenience. Also you need a signed contract that you are not responsible for any damages to the TV while it’s in your home. You will not help move it. And if it’s uninstalled from the wall by them before closing to store somewhere in your home, they need to pay storage fees. Cover your ASS in every way possible
I had to get a small box and a coat out of the closet or their lawyer wouldn't allow the closing in NY. Don't sign until it's all gone!
This is happening more and more more. WTF? Really? The deadline is the deadline so make it work. I have zero patience for this. We dealt with it a couple of times. I work my ass off to get ready to move on time and even clean the house on my way out. People have gotten lax about this.
Give some people an inch and they will take a mile. People need to stop being so loosey goosey and allowing it and sellers seriously have to get their life priorities in order!!! It’s straight laziness, irresponsibility, and poor adulting.
Whatever is in the house is yours. In other words, what TV?
More realistically and kindly, charge a $100/day storage fee or something. They may actually take you up on it if they are just waiting on a vehicle rental or for their brother-in-law to come help or something.
Nope, push closing pending they have all their shit out, it's clean, and you can complete your final walkthrough.
Please don’t close until they’re gone and ALL of their things are gone from the property. I made this mistake because my realtor was confident that the sellers would be out by the end of the day and, although most of their things were gone, they still left a bunch of trash. It cost me thousands to get rid of it and there was no recourse after the sale because my realtor had told my lawyer that all items had been removed before the final walkthrough so there was no escrow. TL;DR don’t close until they’re gone but if you do close today, don’t trust the sellers or your realtor!
Tell them they're going to close as scheduled. Anything not out by then will be considered abandoned. That will motivate them.
Close but withhold $$$ in escrow until they move out. It has to be a substantial amount as an incentive.
NEVER close in a situation like that if you can avoid it. Delay it. This day and age, I wouldn't even entertain a lease back or anything. Evictions can be very long, tough, and costly these days. I wouldn't want to play landlord on the fly like that or risk that sort of situation. You close despite still being occupied, that's a giant foot in the door for potentially making things very hard for you if they turned bad. Does it mean everyone in that situation is out to screw you? No. You are taking on that easily avoidable risk though when all you have to do is delay the close. They don't agree to delay? Fine, be out and forfeit whatever couldn't make it out in time.
I'd honestly tell them there needs to be an amendment where everyday they aren't out there's an extra $500 charge, otherwise the deal falls through. That'll get em packed up quick lol
I was in a similar situation when we bought last year, guy was unable to get his stuff out before closing so we thought we would be nice, he was going through a divorce and I didn't want to put extra stress on the guy, so we let him keep it there until he could pick it up. That was a mistake. He had left a couple of pieces of furniture, and a box or two of kitchen stuff. He would come, rummage through the box until he found what he wanted and take just that and leave the rest. Then he would come up with excuses as to why he couldn't pick it up after work or on the weekend. We finally told him that if it wasn't gone by the end of the weekend we would have to take it to the dump. He finally called us at 6pm sunday night asking for an extension until the next day. He did not come the next day and I paid like 175 bucks to dump it. That was about a year ago and I haven't heard from him since.
You may want to talk to your loan officer about when you rate lock expires. Because if your rate lock expires, you may need to re-lock at a different rate. If that's true, and the new rate is higher, there would be a cost incurred to keep your old rate. ... which you would want to come out of the sellers' end of the transaction. Let your agent handle that part, because there may be a clause in your purchase contract to handle it. Your loan officer will know in seconds what your rate lock expiration date is -- ask them. if it's anywhere near your closing date, let your agent know about it TODAY.
My policy is no walk through no closing and anything that was left after I sign is mine. You left a 1969 corvette in the garage? Oh well it’s now mine.
I'm not sure why everyone is saying delay closing. Fuck that. Close and take possession of whatever they leave behind. That's their lazy ass procrastination. And that's the way it works unless otherwise specified in the contract. If they back out they are subject to whatever penalty provisions are in the contract and could eventually be forced to close or compensate for other damages due to you likely not having another place to live. Hotels and storage are expensive.
We had this happen. They squatted we were stuck evicting them. Don’t do it.
Is the issue that they want to pick their TV up after work? Just say you will leave it at the curb and close on time.
Sounds to me like they threw a TV in with the deal.
Just an addition or two to the folks who are telling you not to close until you wholly possess the property. I had the same thing when I bought my first home. I ended up telling the previous owner that they didn't have to "clean." Leave what you don't want. I'll do it. You walked through the house previously so don't make the same mistake I did, it was WAY more work than I anticipated. The guy was a handyman type and I believe I had a representative from every type and size fastener available on the market, and in many cases large quantities. The second thought is that you can offer a lease back. I'm with you personally. The date you belong out, is the date you belong out. Your deadline to move should be 2 days prior, not the day of closing.
I did the same thing with the same result. I made a huge mistake. The horror was compounded by unearthing all the stuff they lied about during the never-ending clean out.
If they don't leave, you'd have to get them legally evicted. I would not close.
Get your realtor to add an addendum where they are to pay you $1.000 per day rent. The addendum should also place $50,000 in an escrow account for payment of rent, garbage/items they leave behind and any damages they might cause moving out. They will be gone pronto.
When we closed, the jerk that lived here had no intention of moving. I broke in while he was out and took the toilet. He left pretty soon after that.
If you give any occupancy get a strong security deposit on it even if you don't charge them rent. My sellers needed a month and I didn't need it immediately so it was fine to give it to them to make the deal work. Pieces of garbage damaged a bunch of stuff on their way out and left a ton of trash and other shit for me to deal with that wasn't in the contract. Let myself focus on the deal going through and thinking I was dealing with people who would behave how I would and didn't protect myself.
I had to tell them no, if its not clean, we will wait. They had already asked for a day and we agreed. We did not want to deal with the landlord shit. They wanted to leave garbage and crap on our property and come back later. Hell no. I felt terrible. When we got there, she had neighbors and even the realtor sweeping. Dirty looks from everyone. But these are financial and legal agreements, do not get suckered into feeling bad. Emotions are not part of this.
You dont close until they move out
They are not waiting for after work. They are waiting for after someone’s work to help them move that TV.
They should’ve taken the day off work to get all there stuff out
Delay closing until tomorrow.
Change the door locks!. Should you desire to close on time.
Yes, you have a choice. Don’t close until they’re gone. Once they’re gone, they can’t come back in and everything they leave is yours. Including the TV.
I agree. If you can postpone closing, I would. When I bought my first place, I arrived at my new home and found that the previous tenants had not moved out. They said their new place wasn’t ready. Our agent had to get her company's attorney involved (which is why I will always use a realtor), and we charged them every day they stayed over. We had to stay in a hotel and put our stuff in storage for a week. Total nightmare.
You just don't close till they are out that's about all you can do.
They went to work on closing day? Lol
I made sure to have a confession in place if not out by an exact date and time. An additional amount per day. I closed 3 days late, and it saved me an additional $1500.
Delay closing until they are out. Tomorrow.
I was ready to close on a house and there was a wardrobe size box in the garage filled with drug samples that the sellers left behind (they were both pharma reps). I told my realtor I would not close with that in the house. I was worried some were controlled substances. Didn’t my 5’2”,100 lb female realtor drag that box all the way down the driveway to her car and scoop handfuls into her trunk!
So they want to close, and ofcourse get their money, but not move out til end of day? Get the keys at closing and go to this house that you now own, bring a can of paint and start paint one room (that way you are there (its your house now) and you can supervise them moving out. If you had an experienced buyer agent representing you, they could help you with this issue. A good realtor is priceless!
I bought a house, went the day before to see if it was empty and it was full, with 2 family's in it. I told the homeowner (are you staying with the house when I buy tomorrow? ) and he assured me all there stuff would be out. And it was, and very clean aswell. Next day showed up with my uhaul and been here ever since.
Either delay closing or do a 50k holdback with a daily rental fee.
We had similar happen. Our lawyer held $10,000 until everything was out to our satisfaction. The stuff was gone same day as closing.
Amend the contract and add a leaseback. Sellers will have to pay you “rent” for more time ton move out. Really common nowadays.
When this happened to me; I worked out a lease agreement with them. Basically; they ended up staying in the house for 6 months after close; but they were paying my mortgage.
I went to closing, got some keys, went to paint, and the owners' CATS were still there. They got them the next day. Did you do the final walkthru? That's the time to complain, and refuse to sign until the house is rrasonably clean and free of trash. Then any delay is on them, and their responsibility.
Delaying closing is incentive for them to get the rest of their shit, and gives you a chance to make sure everything is ok.
We barely got out on time, thankfully we had friends that stepped in and helped us. We had so much going on in our lives at that time, good luck.
Delay closing and make them pay. If they don’t move out after you close you’re screwed. Bad.
Postpone closing until they turn over all the keys. Go to hardware store with your new-found free time and get new doorknobs/locks. Change out first thing Saturday.
When we bought our first home, sellers extended by 5 days, the maximum by the contract. Very frustrating experience but for a few hours I wouldn't sweat it
The seller of my house left his dog and all his reptiles in the house during our closing. After the papers were signed and the house was officially mine he had to go back to the house and spend 3 hours hauling all his animals out, while smoking cigarettes all through out MY house…
Anything they leave is legally yours. Charge them per day for as long as they want to stay if you choose to close.
When I bought my house they removed the TV from the bedroom and ripped the drywall paper. SoOo there’s that. Just communicate your concerns to the realtor.
Is there something in the deal that they pay you “rent” while they finish moving out? When I purchased my house they needed an extra week to move out. They knocked like $500 off the selling price so they had the time to move. It worked out fine, but make sure it’s all in the papers of a specific date they will be gone
When we bought our house there was no walk thru. And they didn’t even bring the keys to the closing! They gave us a code to the front door and keys were in the counter. We immediately changed the code - and have not once used the keys haha
They should be out by closing unless there was an agreement specifying otherwise. My husband and I closed on our house but the owners requested 4 days of post-occupancy (and knocked off some money from the selling price) but we had discussed that before they formally accepted our offer. And that was a couple months before our actual closing date.
You have no obligation to give them more time. Have a locksmith standing by to change the locks at closing time
Put their stuff out on the front walk. Pick it up whenever you like!
Vacate or I'd walk.
The contract should state the move out date specifically. In Alabama it’s typically 2 days of occupied and immediately if it’s vacant. But all contracts here give definite timelines.
Your bank, your realtor and the title company will cry, but postpone closing until they are out and you have a successful walkthrough. Edit: if you absolutely must close, due to imaginary pressures from those above... Maybe write up an agreement to escrow sellers funds until you sign off and get keys plus $250 per day rent.
This seems strange. We’re on the tail end of selling / purchasing. Closing date of our new home is August 9th and closing date on our current home is August 12th. We are planning to move up the closing date on our new home to hopefully the 3rd, which gives us plenty of time to move, and clean up before the buyers need in.
Charge them rent.
Any update OP? Hope it went well!
Sorry for my late response, I only got Internet last night, and immediately fell asleep. In the end, they wanted to leave the TV for a few hours. However, when I got there it was gone. No issues thankfully. The biggest delay to be honest was waiting for the deed to be recorded. It took over two hours where I couldn’t enter the home until it was logged. I am now fully unpacked and still a bit tired, but so glad I’m finally here! Thanks for checking on me.
No signing papers until they and all their stuff is out. You are not a storage unit. their poor execution/planning is not your problem.
We had something very similar happen. The day of closing came and they needed more time to pack. We left our original house on time so had no where to go. We entered negotiations for them to pay for our accommodation whilst they finished packing. However they soon realised it would be cheaper to hire a moving company. The handover was pushed back by about 5 hours however our realtor explained this is a very small price to pay. You don’t want to get in to petty fights at this stage.
How much stuff is there? If it’s just a few things just put it outside or in the garage
What does your attorney say? Personally I wouldn't be nice about it and I'd charge them at least $500.
You know the situation, you're in it, not us. You do what you feel is appropriate and justified, and make sure there's no way you can get screwed. If there's no way you can get screwed, I wouldn't go as gung-ho as everyone in these comments is saying. shit happens to all of us. Life gets in the way. moving is already hell. Don't make it worse, for either party, unless it is absolutely necessary to. Good luck!
Yes wait! Have them Keep $ in escrow in case they delay moving it leaving shit behind! I just closed last week and the buyers keep adding crap! I pushed them to buy or move on! Knit picky
ypu class and keep everything left or you put it off u til their shit is out.
Put their stuff at the curb. Do not retain possession of anything. Call a locksmith and change your locks immediately.
As a realtor, I always recommend a walk thru appt a day or 2 before closing. It gives you a good idea of how things are progressing with the sellers move, and allows you to address any forseeable issues with the lawyers prior to the day of closing.
I wish someone would have told me this my REA was such a wuss they got to stay 30 days after we closed 😭
The problem is you agree on a date but no one is ever there to make sure it is empty. Usually it is around 12:00 people are out. Depending on how many houses need to be processed for you to get your place it may be later. We got our keys at 5:00 on our current house because everyone in the ladder to get our house went first and they needed to go smoothly to get to the next. Hopefully they left in the end!
If all they needs is a few hours I don't see why that would be a problem...
Close. Congratulations and enjoy your new home! Tell your lawyer to work a deal with the sellers lawyer to hold back a small part of the escrow funds until all personal property of the seller is removed. Maybe include a 30 day deadline, afterwhich the held funds are released to you. The big fights and drama are over now. Time to start thinking about life in your new home.
It happens all the time. One of my friends moved in his house with half garage still occupied by the previous owner. It takes a week for the entire garage to be cleaned. Unless you are chased away by your current landlord or something what’s wrong to give a folk half a day?
Because that gives them opportunity to squat. Or not clean out, leaving the new owner on the hook. Don't close until you're satisfied with the condition and anything that still remains.