It can be very alarming when dealing with a situation at walk-through, even more so when all parties are present. The most important thing to do is to keep calm and politely inquire with the Seller or their agent as to the specific situation and what caused the situation. Assuming an honest answer is provided by the Seller or their agent, there is likely a solution that will allow closing to proceed. When a dishonest answer is provided, it will be obvious to the parties and will likely kill the transaction and leave the parties as adversaries.

I am often times asked the question: “what can we do to still close?”  In this situation there are a few options:

1. Credit – Seller provides a credit to the Buyer for the item in question – this works well if the issue is isolated and easily identified, i.e. a missing or broken appliance;
2. Delay – The parties can agree to delay or extend the closing date until the issue in question is resolved. This is often a good option when additional investigation is needed relating to the issue to determine the extent of the issue in question, such as damage to the property itself or (in our case) water damage; and
3. Escrow – The parties can agree that the Seller will deposit a certain amount of money into the account of the escrow agent at closing which amount will be released once the issue in question has been resolved. This might be a good option if the extent of damage is understood but the timeline for having same fixed will extend more than a few days beyond the original closing date. For this option the parties have to feel comfortable with the uncertainty involved. The Buyer must realize that they are the new owner of the property and therefore ultimately responsible for whatever issues exist after closing and the Seller must realize that their funds might be lost if they cannot resolve the issue as set forth in the escrow agreement between the parties.

While there are other more creative options or combinations of options, these are the most standard that we encounter. Speaking personally I can say that when the parties deal openly and honestly with each other and don’t let emotions flood the playing field, these issues are almost always resolved to the satisfaction of everyone.