We're in the midst of selling our house and have come up with problems right at closing. We had the final walk through on yesterday and the buyers were whinning about a toilet seat being loose. We've already fixed it to the best of our ability and the only other solution would be to rip out the tile and start over fresh...that is not an option. It is my son's bathroom and he's never even noticed it. Mind you, there aren't any leaks, just a minute looseness. The biggest problem is that we are already pay a great deal (almost all) of the buyer's closing cost and now our agent tells us that we need and additional $5,000 because the pay off of our house has increased since the original pay off was afixed. We were being lenient by giving the buyers more time to come up with more money, but it seems that we're getting the raw end of the deal.

Is this at all legal/ethical? Can we get out of this contract and fire the agent without any reprecussions?

If the toilet bowl is a little lose, you can stick a penny or a dime under the part that sits on the floor to make it level. It will solve that problem. Then use some sealer to fill in the gap.

Your real estate agent said that? That is something your bank or lender decides and has nothing to do with your agent. Don't shoot the messenger.

If they can't come up with the money to close by the closing date, they are in default of the contract. Unless you have signed an extension.

If you have not signed an extension, and the buyers can't close because they lack the funds for down payment, yes you can cancel the contract. Talk to your agent.

I guess I didn't quite pose my question correctly. Our problem is that we got a pay off for one amount and now the pay off has increased. Reason being is that the agent got the pay off up to a certain date and then the buyers needed more time to come up with closing cost; therefore, the pay off amount increased. We don't see that as our problem. Now that this has caused us to have to come up with more funds to help with pay off/closing cost, can we cancel the contract?

Most closings don't go as planned. Many factors can delay the process and can cause unforeseen expenses by both the buyer and seller. It is a part of any "investment" that you make, especially home purchases and sales. It is not the fault of your agent. From what you are saying, he did what he was supposed to do. Could he have known that this exact situation would happen? Is there something he could have done even if he thought it might happen? It sounds like he went beyond what I would do for a seller. Why would he do as you said, "agent got the pay off up to a certain date"? That is the lenders and your responsability to make sure your mortgage payoff is correct, not the agents. The agent is usually the middleman supplying the payoff information to the title company which was furnished by you and the lender.

No, You can't cancel because you had to pay some more money to your lender for loan payoff.
You never answered my question. Did you sign an extension?
And a new question. Is the contract contingent on financing? If the contract is contingent on financing, but the lender is holding up the closing, you cannot cancel your contract. Please talk to your agent.

The payoff increased only because you lived the house for an extra amount of time. So you now have to pay for those days of interest. This is common sense and you can't blame the agent for you having to pay for the interest on the loa you took out.

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My thoughts on the Sarasota Association of REALTORS actions.

I fully understand about having to pay for extra days, but the extra days are a result of the buyers being petty over a toilet that had already been fixed once and an agent who said he would take care of everything, but actually didn't. The buyers wanted us to tear up the floor and redo the toilet to their satisfaction which I understand, but I assure you, the problem with the toilet is minute (a slight wobble) and is definitely not worth the time, trouble, and money of tearing up floored tile and redoing it. They even complained about the carpet not being cleaned good enough. They wanted it cleaned prior to the final walk through, but I guess they forgot that we would still be moving and tracking in and out of the house. Our agent stated that he would take care of everything and we wouldn't have to do anything. In hind sight, I now know that we should have gotten the pay off ourselves and not rely on the agent to do everything even though he told us not to worry about it--he had it taken care of. Now he's barely returning our calls.

Everything doesn't mean he can make the buyers close early or on time if they don't want to, it doesn't mean that he can reduce your payoff to make it work for your budget, and it doesn't mean that he make a picky buyer understand this isn't new construction and things will not be perfect (that would have been the buyers agents job).

You may not be happy with your agent, but you are expecting more than is possible IMO.

Do you think if you ordered the payoff the numbers would have been different?
Did you end up having to repair the toilet?
Did you end up having to re-clean the carpet?

__________________
The Suburban House Hunters Team would like to thank REW members for past referrals! We are never to busy to handle your Chicago area referrals.

Always looking for quality unique content for our real estate agent blog, PM me if interested in writing a post.

My thoughts on the Sarasota Association of REALTORS actions.

The original payoff that we quoted turned out to be correct. Somehow the closing attorneys or whom ever deals with that got the wrong payoff. That was eventually straightened out. We did not repair the toilet nor did we re-clean the carpet. We were not going to tear up the floor in order to reseat the toilet. They should have wanted the carpet cleaned at a later time as we were still moving and tracking the carpet back up. We were set to close today. We, as the sellers, did what we were supposed to do and closed on our end. We later on received a call from our agent stating the buyers had a problem with closing. They had a problem with signatures not matching. What exactly does that mean or what scenario would make that transpire?