If someone did that to me, I wouldn't accept the lower offer. Why would you enter into another contract when they've shown that they don't honour them?

I feel like there must be more of a reason for this specific situation. This can't be someone's standard operating procedure. I imagine it wouldn't work more often than it would work and in the meantime, they'd be losing their earnest money each time they tried it (assuming there aren't still contingencies hanging around a few days before closing).

Are we talking a few thousand lower? Or a serious low ball offer?

If someone did that to me, I would reject their new offer and any offer they might make after that. I would just refuse to have anything more to do with them. I have sold two houses and bought one in the past few years and I'm not into playing games or dealing with buyers who play games or want one little thing after the other. Of course, I don't know your individual circumstances, or anything about the house you're trying to sell, so...

Do you know the reason why the buyer did this?

Yes they are represented by a Realtor. I am wondering if this is common practice that I just have no experience in? We have sold many homes and never had this happen.

Hard to imagine unless their purchase agreement mentioned specifically pending cost of something like well, septic, bringing in electric or something similar. Unless I really wanted to get rid of property I would not accept their lower offer.

I would take great glee in turning down their new offer "with extreme prejudice".

You could always counter at the original agreed price, or the original asking price.

Do YOU have a realtor representing you? And a lawyer?

Why was the 'investigation' contingency still in place a couple of days before closing?

It was an all cash 10 day close. Yes we have a Realtor.

Well that's different! From contract to close was only a few days! This is no big deal and is the usual renegotiation after an inspection.

Thank you for letting me know. I have never sold with an all cash quick close before.

Just be aware that this might be his usual negotiation tactic and not actually a legitimate concern. A quick close creates a sense of urgency. Take your time deciding if you want to reduce your price or wait for the next person to come along. Don't feel like you have to move forward with it if it isn't the right price. If this sale falls through, you've only lost a few days being under contract.

Counter with the same price as you'd already agreed on if you think it's the right price. He may accept it.

No, it's not a common thing to withdraw an offer and then submit an offer for less. Is there something actually wrong with your property, that was just found during inspection, that's it's going to end up costing more to build on it vs on a neighboring property? If so, this might reduce your property value and make it understandable that they would want to negotiate further. If not...

Sounds like they are playing games. Sounds like they want X, but maybe only have money for Y, and so they have decided to try and make YOU pay for the difference instead of building a slightly smaller house or whatever else they could do to reduce their costs to build or just taking out a loan to build X. Did the property appraisal come in at least equal to their original offer? If so, why should their plans for the property affect you? Why should you get less than the property is worth because they want to build X vs Y (or don't want a loan to build X)? Do you think you can find other buyers and can you afford to wait for someone else to buy?

Oh, yes, I've had to deal with these all cash, quick close, types. They generally seem to think they deserve special treatment or something (meaning they think they should get to somehow pay less because their offer is all cash). If YOU don't need a quick close, what does it matter if they have all cash? There is nothing inherently better for you in their offer vs an offer where people get a loan, unless YOU need an all cash/quick close offer for some reason. More than one buyer has also tried to pull the "this is an ALL CASH offer and this is all the cash we have" stuff on us, while offering less than the property was worth. I don't play these sorts of games with people. We quickly rejected all of the all cash offers on the house we recently sold, because they all seemed to feel entitled and they were all playing some sort of game. The house we recently sold...we sold for more to people who got a loan. Yes, it took about 30 days to close and that was fine with us.

Just counter with something 1000. Higher than what they were under contract for. If they ask why it's higher, tell them it is the "time wasting fee" or "pain in the as$" fee.

I'd blow them out, personally.

Did they terminate the current contract or are they just trying to renegotiate a new price during the inspection period? Two totally different scenarios. You have yet to answer the question as to if they will lose their deposit if they terminated. There is more to this story that needs explaining.

I wasn't aware that with all cash quick close offers this is something that regularly happens as Greg above explained, so that is why I posted.

Agree with ncrealestateguy, unless the due diligence period was running out and the buyer cancelled to save their deposit and then renegotiate. Odd, but understandable if the deposit was on the line and the property defect is real.

They should have done their research about fees to develop land in the county, before they decided to buy land there. Then, they should have only made offers on pieces of property that fit within their overall budget for building. As a kind of side note, anyone who wants to build and who is saying that $10K extra means they cannot afford to build (before they even buy the land) is either playing some major games or they are never going to finish their build. Houses always cost more to build than you expect.

It's really entitled of them to expect you to take money out of your pocket and give it to them to build the house they want, and that's exactly what seems to be happening.

They can get a loan, build a smaller house or reduce costs for building in some other way, in my opinion. I'm wondering if they are planning to treat the people who build the house in the same way? Tell them that they should work for less, because it's costing more than they expected to build? Maybe they'll tell that to the people who supply the materials to build the house? I can just picture them at the lumber yard, telling them they want to pay thousands less for the lumber, because it's costing more than they expected to build, as the lumber is being loaded onto the trucks for delivery.

The house we recently sold... There were multiple all cash offers for less than the house was worth. We rejected them all. I'll share some of the calls that we then received from one particular real estate agent... "But, it's an ALL CASH offer," he said, as if that entitled them to pay less than the house is worth. "But, they want to add on, so that's why they can only pay that much," he said, as if we should take less than the house was worth, because they wanted to add a bedroom. "It's not up to us to fund their addition, they can get a loan for that, or wait until they save more money," we said. "Won't you just meet with them, so they can tell you what they want to do with the house?" "No, absolutely not," we said, "we don't care anything about their plans for adding on...they can do whatever they want with any house they buy, after they buy it, but they aren't buying the house we're selling for less than its fair market value." You are basically dealing with buyers who are playing the same game these people tried to play with us. There was no way we were going to tolerate or reward their behavior. But, we could wait (indefinitely) for different buyers. It's also a market here that favors sellers. You'll have to decide what to do, taking into account your needs and the real estate market there.

People will do whatever they can get away with. I am not really sure that them finding out it costs more than they expected to build there actually entitles them to get their earnest money back. I'm sure their real estate agent will say that it does, though, whether it's true or not.

Since the offer had a ten day closing, I don't think you can say they "cancelled days before closing", the whole offer to closing was days. They may want to cancel to protect themselves per terms of the contract, now they are offering less to make the purchase work for them. Remember this is a business transaction, the original terms do not work for them, they cancelled. Now they've offered a lower price, you decide if you want to accept, is so, fine done deal, if not, just say no, move on. Don't emotionalize the buyers plan or goal, concentrate on your plan and goal and if their offer works for you. This way you will reach YOUR goal.

So, veggiegardnr, did you sell your house for what you wanted? And how much longer did it take?

We sold the house for a significant amount over the asking price. The first time we listed, we had multiple all cash offers and we rejected them all. We took the house off the market for a couple of months (because we knew we'd originally listed at a sort of bad time of the year to sell a house), then relisted. We had multiple offers two weeks after the house was relisted. Initially, there was one offer slightly below, one at, and two above the price we were asking. The asking price offer was subsequently increased. The house actually appraised at our asking price, not the sales price (which was more than the appraised value), and the buyers made up the difference in cash.