So we recently signed a contract to buy a home and negotiated with the sellers just a little bit to include all appliances and some money towards closing. Upon getting the house inspected we realized there is a chunk of carpet missing in one of the rooms. They covered this with a UNC welcome mat (tacky in the first place, but unc makes it worse). We did not know about this damage upon negotiating so we decided to include it in things that they need to fix upon us buying it. They refuse to do this. I came back and said that we would like to receive a quote for recarpeting the room and will have this money taken out of the asking price or compensated by the sellers.

I also need to add that their MLS listing specifically states: "New Carpet being put in this month." Here is what the sellers said to my response:

"Had this item been included in discussions prior to the contract being
agreed upon by all parties, we would have addressed it then. Instead,
your buyers asked for several other concessions which we agreed to.
There was no intent to "hide" the issue of the carpeting at any time.
In fact, our MLS listing made reference to our future plans for carpet
replacement. Again, since it was not brought up during those initial
discussion, it became a non-issue. "

I know anything in the MLS listing is not contractual, but is it not misleading? What pisses me off the most is that the carpet was hidden. We (me, my fiance, agent, appraiser) did not even think to lift up the welcome mat. So whether hiding the damage was intentional or not, I feel like they need to address this.

Any advice?

9/10/2010 9:06:15 AM

1) talk to a lawyer if you want legit legal advice. I don't mean that to be a smart ass. But you can probably find out if you have any legal ground with a 5 minute conversation with a lawyer.

2) That being said; My guess is that if it's not in the contract, there's not much you can do aside from ask them to take care of it and hope they do.

3a) How much will replacing the carpet in that room cost? Is that cost, over the time you'll be living there and using the new carpet, really worth the hassle? I know "it's misleading" and "not right"... but is it worth any costs (time or financially) of fighting over it, and is it even worth the aggravation?

3b) if they put down new carpet, it could be shit or something you hate. Especially now. They'd probably just put down the cheapest stuff they could get anyhow. Personally, I'd prefer to pick my own carpet anyhow since I'd have to live with it and not them.


You've signed the contract so I'm assuming you should be good in this regard; but I've known people who have lost bids on houses that they really wanted because of stuff they wanted the seller to do or include. Things that are ultimately not a huge deal, like putting down new carpet and what not.



I'm assuming this isn't a money thing, but a "i can't believe they hid this from us and aren't playing ball" thing for you. I get that. And I would definitely ask, as you did. And I would probably maybe go back to them about it one more time. But after that, I'd just swallow my pride, move on, and be excited about my new house.


and Congrats on the house!

[Edited on September 10, 2010 at 9:36 AM. Reason : .]

9/10/2010 9:34:40 AM

Ultimately, since it was not in the contract, they don't have to fix it. I would imagine that your agent put in some sort of repairs contingency in the contract, so that would likely mean you don't have to buy it now either. So basically, its back to the negotiation table. If you really really want the house, you eat the cost and buy the house. They are dumb as hell if they are going to let a few hundred dollar fix blow up the deal, though. It's hard to find buyers these days.

^that's good advice too. At this point, new carpet isn't that expensive in the scheme of things and although it is a sketchy situation, it may not be worth losing the house over.

[Edited on September 10, 2010 at 9:39 AM. Reason : d]

9/10/2010 9:37:51 AM

You haven't closed right??

Even though you are under contract, you can still back out without penalty. I'm assuming this house purchase is contingent on financing and/or home inspection?? So even if you get the financing you want and you like the inspection, it's still up to you. So in the end, you can be like, "I'm not satisfied with the inspection." Call their bluff if you'd like. I don't know if they're selling well below their asking price, but sellers definitely have a lot of leverage these days with the market the way it is.

Why has your realtor said??

9/10/2010 9:50:41 AM

What does your agent say about this?

They hid that shit. It was a dishonest move. This is not an easy time to sell a house. Play hardball. They'll at least split the cost of new carpet with you at closing. Personally, I'd go for cash, leave it as is, and install the carpet you want down the road after moving in.

9/10/2010 9:54:52 AM

Quote :

"Personally, I'd go for cash, leave it as is, and install the carpet you want down the road after moving in."

definitely go that route if you pursue it.

I'd probably get a few quotes. Pick something reasonable (not the lowest and not the highest) and show them what you came up with. Ask them to cut those costs out or to at least split them. Once they see the actual figure, they may not care so much if it means not selling the house over a small amount in the big picture.

9/10/2010 10:05:35 AM

Usually, in the contract, there's some dollar amount of damages that is set in the contract, that if found during inspection that gives you an out, and you can get your earnest money back and errything. I forget what it's called.

If your realtor set it right, It's not hard to go higher than that number if you want to. I had a house a while ago that we had agreed to buy contingent on the insepction, and then we found a turd and some tp under the house that had somehow escaped from the plumbing. blah blah blah some other stuff was broke too....We got out clean and bought another house.


The red flag to me would be that they hid it, and what other things you find later on down the road.

[Edited on September 10, 2010 at 10:12 AM. Reason : []

9/10/2010 10:10:47 AM

The agent agrees with me and thinks it was very misleading. Had we known about the carpet, we would have addressed it in the contract. He found a company that can replace a portion of the room's carpet for $150. I think further down the road we can have the whole room replaced at our expense, but this is a good starting point. We'll see what the buyers say. I almost want to withdraw our offer just to spite them, but we've put in a good portion of money already into inspections, appraisal, etc.

9/10/2010 10:15:38 AM

I guess the carpet is a no-go. They attached pictures to show that there was no missing carpet, but instead a hideous rectangle of carpet cut out just laying on top. This was their response:

"I am attaching pictures in an attempt to convey that there is no missing carpet, as I previously stated. As you mentioned in your e-mail below, the comment in MLS indicates an aesthetic issue, which is exactly what was intended. It does not indicate a problem of missing carpet, because that is not the case. As you will see in the pictures, there is no sub-floor that can be seen and thus the
appraisal should not be affected. My husband and I agreed to an earlier closing date to accommodate your clients. Because of this, we are going to have to pay over $4000 for residence in a hotel until such time that our permanent residence will be ready. This, in addition to the generous concessions that we have allowed your clients already, are why we do not wish to spend any further money on this transaction."

So basically they had planned to replace the carpet and even mentioned it in their listing, but if the buyers (us) did not ask about this plan, they would ignore the issue. I guess I know to ask more questions for the next time I buy a house and hopefully not all sellers are as scummy as these folks. I appreciate all the responses.

9/10/2010 2:55:05 PM

That definitely seems like something the should have disclosed in their report of the house. You should be able to back out of the deal because they didn't disclose it. you could also talk to a lawyer and see if you have a fraud case, because that shit is super illegal.

But as was stated before, you can take this whole deal back to the drawing board if you think it's worth it.

9/10/2010 3:01:45 PM

At this point, we're just ready to close on the house. I went ahead and told the agent to tell them that we will drop the floor/carpet issue, but they need to complete the repairs that they noted as "scheduled to repair" before we move in. It's all just very frustrating

Is there anything we can do legally (e.g., small claims, etc.) after we close on the house? I just don't want to bring any of that up now and then they reject our offer. I don't even know what I can take them to court for, which is part of the reason I'm asking here (although I know TWW isn't full of lawyers).

[Edited on September 10, 2010 at 3:19 PM. Reason : .]

9/10/2010 3:14:17 PM

if they hid that shit they probably hid other shit.

9/10/2010 3:15:09 PM

Dude, the best way from learning from your mistakes is acknowledging and accepting them.
Don't think of it as an extra expense.
Think of it as relatively cheap university course on how not to be taken advantage of.

9/10/2010 4:09:10 PM

Quote :

"Is there anything we can do legally (e.g., small claims, etc.) after we close on the house? I just don't want to bring any of that up now and then they reject our offer. I don't even know what I can take them to court for, which is part of the reason I'm asking here (although I know TWW isn't full of lawyers). "

It's not worth it (at all) for the cost to replace it. Yea it is crappy on their part and yes you should have been a little more thorough on your end but it comes down to the fact of whether you want this house or not. If you do, be glad that the only problem you are having with closing on this house is some missing carpet haha.

9/10/2010 4:18:55 PM