bunsenburner…
Is there a clause in your state’s contract that includes a ‘final inspection’ some days before closing escrow? In California, the buyer has the right to inspect property within 4 days of closing.
What excuses are they using to keep you out of the house?
With every house I’ve bought, there has been a pre-closing walk through.
Oh there’s that inspection clause here, too. It is that they scheduled the movers for the last day before closing… And I suspect they might have rented the house - rats and all - to some unsuspecting person for a few days prior to that. Their realtor is a piece of works, and our realtor is too nice to push for anything… Guess who is not going to be selling our current house if that transaction happens at all? 
BB - we did a walk through the evening before the closing day because that’s when I had flown in. It was appalling. I’m convinced the seller’s agent stayed up most of the night trying to get the rest of the junk out by himself.
So, we went back for another walk through just an hour or so before closing. Still appalling, but not so bad. The seller was a bit crazy but the 2 agents decided to hire a dumpster and some laborers to get the rest of the stuff out and help the closing go through. The seller gave us a credit (we couldn’t see the structural condition of the garage because it was still stuffed floor to ceiling) and he eventually paid the agents about $600 for the dumpster. I’m not sure how big it was but it was filled 3 times!
I give credit to both the agents. The seller’s agent in particular had been dealing with that house for 7-8 months and wanted it to be over!
P.S. It’s a great house. Just needed some help.
They want us to sign papers two days before closing and then - maybe - they will let us see the house the evening before they get the $$. Nice, isn’t it?
I’m guessing you are signing the loan papers when you indicate that you are signing papers? Talk to your escrow officer on whether you can sign the loan papers but hold off the ‘funding’ of the loan until you provide a written release. Usually when you sign the loan papers the funding goes into motion. Is there any way you can hold up the actual funding of the loan ? Even after the loan papers are signed?
You need to get out the contract and carefully read the section on the final walkthrough. I’m not familiar with Washington purchase contracts. Does it indicate that the house has to be vacant and cleared out? Does it have an exact time frame for final walkthrough? If yes, you need to push push push.
If they cannot meet that deadline then you have no obligation to meet your deadline for loan papers. As you get closer to the date just submit a ‘Notice to Perform’. They have X nbr of days to respond. That holds everything up while you wait for the house to be cleared.
I feel it is reasonable to expect the house to be cleared and ready for final inspection before you sign the loan papers. On my transactions, I will invite the buyers for a final walkthrough at least 4 days before closing. Usually they will come for a final walkthrough (and check the list of items repaired) while they are on their way to the escrow office to sign the loan papers.
If you really want to scare them… tell them that your home inspector is joining you for the walkthrough to review the areas that were not visible or could not be accessed during the inspection. That always scares the living daylights out of me!!!, although I have never sold a house where all areas could not be accessed by the home inspector. I want everything inspected during that first visit. Usually my cautious buyers will have the inspector come back again to review all the repairs made.
Thanks, cb. Here, it is only structure and systems need to be in the same shape as we have seen them, but clean and empty does not apply pretty much. The buyers are entitled to keep whatever is left in the house (no, we are not keeping the rats!)
I have a feeling that these folks will not be scared, not in our RE market. We did not ask them to repair a thing, too, cause it would have meant fig leaves covering huge holes. 
So we are trying to figure out what can be done. Stay tuned!
I loaded more pictures from the flooring installation and our kitchen cabinet installation. Of course all the walls in the little kitchen area are not straight and plumb and there has been a lot of shimming, etc required to get them installed straight
Flip #7
It’s now the end of the day and I have not received any communication from the real estate agent who is supposed to be representing me for my offer on Santa Barbara. I find it very irritating that he doesn’t even have the common decency to call me and tell me ‘Sorry, but…’ at least.
His phone has been turned off all day and he has not responded to my text. Either he got hit by a truck, sudden illness or he is way too busy to be bothered with me.
That sucks. Very very rude.
Time to move on.
Probably had a really hot date lasting all day long…
It is infuriating how much scum there is out there… Time to go fishing elsewhere.
How terribly unprofessional. I’d do my best never to work with that agent in the future! Wow!
The house is shaping up beautifully! OMG, I have not realized you had to move an oven and other similarly heavy stuff back and forth! Wow. Flooring Tetris, mastered to perfection.
I LOVE that blue front door.
I think they need to paint that wooden fence white. It will look much better white!
I like what I am seeing, cb. Like thumper, I love the blue door.
Just gorgeous as usual, CB! I agree–set the couple to work painting the outside fence–it will look much better. White is a good color but will show dirt. I’m sure CB has good ideas of what color would work for the fence.
I’m just picturing a cute white fence maybe with a couple of planter boxes mounted on it with colorful flowers.
Sort of a white picket fence look.
Planter boxes can attract mold and wood rot–just saying. The white picket fence look definitely has it’s proponents.
A white fence would look good. It could be a super light gray if they wish. If it gets dirty or starts to peel they have to make sure it does so in a “shabby chic” way!
A big help is to have something at the base that prevents an up-splash of dirt from rains. If you can’t grow plants there, how about some beautiful rocks? It would go with her beach house look, and they don’t have to march along like soldiers but just be a sort of organic drift of rounded beach rocks.
The planters could project out an inch or so to prevent too much water-wood contact. I have some in a far rainier climate and it’s fine.
I have begged them to spruce up the fence with some white paint. I’m afraid they suffer from ‘we’ll get that done in the future because we really want to tear it down and take out concrete’ well we all know how that will go…it will fall by the wayside and never get done and they’ll be looking at a derelict fence for many years