Today it hit - even though we have been talking about late September as a closing date for some time, today the seller informed us that he wouldn't be ready to move out / close until Monday, October 3rd.
As renters, this creates quite a problem. Our options at this point:
- Asked our current landlord if we could stay longer - while they have rented our apartment out, that person isn't planning to occupy the apartment until October 10th
- Move our furniture into "our" garage - this may be possible with the seller's permission, although we'll have to then move it out of the garage after we close. 2 moves < 1 move. We'd also have to find a place to stay for Friday night through Tuesday
- Move our furniture into a moving truck and rent it out until we can move in. We'd also need to find a place to stay.
Since we can't stay in our apartment, there isn't much point in renting out another unit in our building for a month and pushing back closing.
Lessons learned:
- Communicate early and often with the seller and his lawyer / Realtor - make sure they understand the need to close "on time"
- Perhaps have your lawyer add a "late closing" penalty into the contract
- Try to schedule your closing date for the middle of the month / expect delays.
On the last point, I was walking our dog this morning and I ran into a woman I know from our building. She asked how the process was going and I gave her the update. She said that they once had a similar issue - there were three houses involved and they all needed to close at about the same time. Owner A was selling and moving into House X, Owner B was selling and moving into A's home, while Owner C was selling and moving into B's home. Closing needed to be coordinated for the same day. Needless to say, there were problems and the whole thing was a mess.
So, anyone have a place for Pamela, Akina, and I to live in for a few days?
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