home inspection

What is the name of your state? Maryland
I recently sold my house without a realtor. The contract I signed did not specify a time limit for a reponse from the buyer regarding their home inspection. Their inspection was on Thursday and tomorrow will be Monday. I have made numerous calls to their realtor and either get put off or no response at all. Can I force the buyer to give me a response regarding the home inspection or can they continue to hold my home hostage. Thanks.
-Bob

[Souix]

Originally Posted by rwinston

What is the name of your state? Maryland
I recently sold my house without a realtor. The contract I signed did not specify a time limit for a reponse from the buyer regarding their home inspection. Their inspection was on Thursday and tomorrow will be Monday. I have made numerous calls to their realtor and either get put off or no response at all. Can I force the buyer to give me a response regarding the home inspection or can they continue to hold my home hostage. Thanks.
-Bob

***Call the buyer's agent's principal broker***

[HomeGuru]

Just some of the few problems when there is no Realtor.

It may have been one of the few problems that arise from not using a realtor but I sure am pleased that I sold my house by myself. Instead of paying a comission to a realtor who probably would have done next to nothing to earn the money, I saved $10,000. The matter has since been resolved due in large part to a visit to an attorney who earned his $35 consulting fee. -Bob

[HomeGuru]

That's great. One out of 1000.

Originally Posted by rwinston

It may have been one of the few problems that arise from not using a realtor but I sure am pleased that I sold my house by myself. Instead of paying a comission to a realtor who probably would have done next to nothing to earn the money, I saved $10,000. The matter has since been resolved due in large part to a visit to an attorney who earned his $35 consulting fee. -Bob

How much you saved would be determined by what you negotiated with the agent. You MAY have saved $10,000 or more... or less. And you've already had some headaches it seems. The transaction isn't over yet. And even once it is: Are you SURE you dotted the i's and crossed the t's? Your [opponent] has representation in this transaction...

You are, of course, free to do as you will, but I would never go to court without representation, especially if the [opponent] did. Nor would I enter a real estate transaction without representation, again, especially if the [opponent] did.

By the way, since you obviously had no problems finding a buyer yourself, you probably could have negotiated with an agent down a minimal amount (or even a flat fee perhaps) to just take care of the paperwork and manage these mundane problems for you. What you call "next to nothing [to earn the money]" involves MUCH more than you may think behind the scenes.

[Souix]

I wonder too.....since you have only just begun how many other key contingencies in the contract have been left blank as to time and date. Buyer's agents have been trained to get as much for their buyers as they can, so if you think you have saved $10,000, I wonder what you have compromised in your negotiations.

I kind of have to chuckle when I am working with sellers that think my job is done when their sales contract is negotiated and signed. They think my job ends at this point, but that is far from the truth. My job doesn't end until the transaction closes and they get their funds. I have never once in my 25 year career heard a seller complain to me after the transaction closed that I had done little or nothing for them. It is 100% just the opposite.

My suggestion for the OP is to leave this thread open so you can come back and continue posting when something else goes wrong. In any event, best of luck to you.

I know that all realtors are not the same and some do work very hard to earn there money. Unfortunately the few I have come to know are not those type of people.

I actually have gotten out of my contract with my original buyer. They had a couple of issues with the inspection that were very minor and two of the issues didn't even exist. My feelings are that the agent representing them did not want this transaction to go through because of the minimal fee I was paying him. I agreed to give him a 1% comission on the purchase price of my house. The buyers viewed the house on their own and still wanted to use him. Their agent was late for every appointment we had scheduled and would never return calls. The realtor proceeded to urge them to use a crummy inspector who could not find a drip pan on the brand new A/C unit and also could not tell the roof was vented. The people had concerns, so I simply asked them to back out of the contract because I had others interested. They signed a release form and now I am fully confident with my new buyers. They have a wonderful agent and everything is going great.

I did a lot of homework and sold this house on my own quite easily. My one pitfall is that I did not use an attorney to look over the first contract. That mistake will not happen again. Like I said, after I pay out the 1% comission I will have saved $10,000. In this market there is no reason you can't sell the house yourself. I have discovered that it is well worth the money to have an attorney look over your contract. Good luck to all For Sale by Owners. -Bob

[Souix]

Good luck to all For Sale by Owners. -Bob[/quote]


***Yes, Bob, they will need it ***