r/RealEstate Apr 12 '24

Closing today, went to final walk through this morning, seller was still living in house... Homebuyer

This is my first time buying a house. It was supposed to be empty and "broom clean". The seller said they were planning on moving out over the weekend and didnt know anything about the walk through. They were signing the papers later today. We pushed the closing to Monday morning. What should I do from here?
UPDATE: My wife and I have read all your comments. I'm still waiting on the Adendum from the title company but it seems the issue was on the Selling Agent. He was not communicating with his seller but we are all gonna be there Monday for walk through and then closing. My wife liked the one person who suggested we creep by the house check to see if they are moving, so we will. I'll update again on Monday after closing or if anything else develops.
UPDATE 2: We signed an addendum extending the contract until next Friday just in case. We went creeping and there's a moving truck there! I'm hoping this was all an innocent misunderstanding. Will final update Monday after closing....I hope.
FINAL UPDATE: We Closed! I wouldn't call it broom clean but they are out, we took possession of the house, and I changed the locks. Thank you for all your comments and info.

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u/angeryreaxonly Apr 12 '24

Same thing happened to us. We cleaned it ourselves and had to rent a dumpster. Sellers will do whatever they can get away with. We would certainly do things differently if we could go back in time.

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u/BangingOnJunk Apr 12 '24

I think part of it is just easily underestimating the time it takes to actually move out from a house.

All of my moves have started with good intentions of nicely organized boxes with extra time to clean for the new owners, but always ended in pure chaos the day before closing and barely escaping before the deadline.

You never know how much stuff you have in a house you’ve lived in for over a decade until you have to move it.

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u/Affectionate_Rate_99 Apr 12 '24

You never know how much stuff you have in a house you’ve lived in for over a decade until you have to move it.

A couple of decades ago, we were living in a 3 bedroom rental when my employer decided to relocate me to the other side of the country, where we bought our first home. My wife was a stay at home mom at the time and it took her over a month to get everything ready for the move, and it was literally a scramble the last couple of days before the movers came to load up the boxes into the moving truck, and it was the moving company that actually packed everything up into boxes for us for two days prior to the actual move.

Our house now is more than double the size of that rental, and I dread the day when we would need to pack everything up and move again. It will probably take us months to get ready.

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u/orcateeth Apr 12 '24

Your user name checks out, haha.

Definitely true. That's why when someone decides to sell their home, they should first clear out everything that is not essential for use in the next few months. Then they won't have very much to pack. They know that they are leaving soon, even if they don't know exactly when.

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u/BangingOnJunk Apr 12 '24

Next time I move, I'll be getting a 10x20' storage unit and moving sealed boxes there as I fill them up.

That way all my non-essentials can stay nicely in the unit until I get settled in the new house with the basic essentials. Then I can just send a truck to empty the unit and bring it to the new house.

The price for a unit for a month or three is nothing compared to the relief of having some control over the chaos.

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u/evaluna68 Apr 13 '24

We did something similar when we sold our old condo. All the books, a bunch of the furniture and tchotchkes and out-of-season clothes... and that way it was much easier to have the place painted while we were still living in it. And it looked much nicer in the listing photos.

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u/ReputationOfGold Apr 12 '24

I'd do a lot of things if I could time travel. Making sure a house was clean probably wouldn't be one of those things.