Addendum

Well, they responded to our request for them to concede $5,000 for repairs on the house. They said “no”. Well, that is not technically correct. If they had just said “no”, we would have simply signed their $2,000 offer and then been on our merry way to closing in 9 days as we had planned. But, they said “no” and then explained themselves and their explanation was crap not very sound.

They argued that we should stay inside their range that they had stated in the negotiation process and that since we were at the very bottom of their range, they were not willing to concede anything more than $2,000 [which was the actually $1,000 above the bottom of their range]. We were frustrated that they wanted us to stay within this range even though they were not aware of all of the issues going on with the house [or they lied in their disclosure].

Their range was a number that we have since decided was 94% of what their house appraised for or essentially what they would have taken home if they sold the house for $X [the appraisal value] and paid their realtor a 6% commission. The problem is, their house was appraised in September of last year and the housing prices have since dropped. Also, I do not believe the appraisal value took nto account the fixes that need to be done to the house [e.g. a new roof, a new HVAC, fix lose wires, mold remediation].

However, if they still feel that their house is worth the appraised value [in spite of the roof and other issues], we can certainly see how they would be unwilling to sway. On the other hand, our appraisal came in at the sales price, so that is a good indication that the market has dropped.

We sent them an email stating our disappointment and explained all of the above. Matt and I needed to have a talk and figure out what we wanted to do. We were hoping that the fact that the house appraised for the sale price would make them more flexible. But, we shall see.