Homebuyers turn screws on desperate sellers

A rock-bottom price just isn’t enough for buyers these days – it’s a starting point. If the furnace is out of date, they’ll demand a new one. Cracked driveways have to be repaved, and dirty carpeting torn out and replaced. All at the seller’s expense.

Buyers are in the driver’s seat and they know it. They’re using that leverage to pry more concessions out of desperate sellers than they ever dreamed of during the bubble.

“‘Now it’s my turn,’ is the attitude,” said Mike Byrd, a real estate agent with SLO Home Store in San Luis Obispo, Calif. “Some buyers are really putting the screws on.”

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