So, check this out. My mom, who’s in her golden years, decided to sell her house. We received a bunch of offers and went with the highest bidder. These folks were all about it, saying they had family in the area and were super keen on the place. They even waived the inspection, put down a hefty $10k earnest money deposit, and the house appraised at the right value. The contingency period? Done and dusted.
But then, a few days before the big settlement day, these buyers show up for a walk-through with some technician in tow. My mom, bless her heart, was alone and had no clue what was going on. This tech starts poking around, testing everything, running water like it’s going out of style, rummaging through the attic, and leaving a mess in their wake. Sneaky move, right? Turns out, they basically did an informal inspection, which, guess what, is against the law. What nerve!
Later on, they hit us up with a laundry list of little fixes they wanted us to take care of. We were like, “What gives? You pull this stunt, and now you’re making demands?” But, fine, we agreed to do the fixes just to get this show on the road. Then they have the audacity to push back the settlement date. And to top it all off, a few days later, they come at us with some story about a brick bulge in the back and wanting a structural engineer to check it out. Hold up! You agreed to buy the house “as is,” and your contingency period is a thing of the past. Are you trying to breach the contract?
Long story short, they backed out. Now we’re in the trenches, trying to negotiate to keep their earnest money. Usually, I’m not one to play hardball, but this whole ordeal has been a hot mess. They wasted our time, caused my mom to move out all her stuff right before settlement, and now we’re back to square one, putting the house back on the market. What a headache.
We’re in Maryland, and apparently, it’s looking like we’ll have to go through mediation to sort this out. If we’re lucky, we might snag half of that earnest money. But seriously, how is this even allowed? They straight-up violated the contract. I’d get it if they bounced during the contingency period, and we’d let the money slide