My wife and I just wrapped up the attorney review for a property in a high-cost-of-living area where homes sell like hotcakes. We found a reasonably priced house that the seller chose not to list because the last time it was on the market, the sale fell apart due to inspection issues. The seller is currently working on fixing the main problem, which is replacing the knob and tube wiring. We’re pretty excited about it, but I’m more paranoid than my wife. It still seems like a decent deal.
Right after we sign our contract and finish the attorney review, we get a call from our real estate attorney saying that someone put in an offer way over ours. We’re already under contract, so nothing can change now, but if we decide to push hard during inspections, the seller might concede less because they might want to get out of the deal with us. We haven’t done inspections yet and haven’t waived anything major, but it feels like we have way less leverage now.
It just seems odd to me that literally 15 minutes after we’re under contract, our attorney hears about this new offer. If the realtor for the new offer had been more organized, they could’ve canceled with us without any hassle. Now it feels like we’re just lucky to have this deal, but my paranoid side wonders if the inspection will reveal serious issues that would make the seller want to keep us interested. That would mean a lot of people would have to lie, which seems unlikely. One more thing to note: our realtor represents both the seller and us.