Here’s a situation that happens more often than you might think: your lawyer calls to say that your house is closed, you pick up the keys, you go to the house….and the old owners are still there.
If you are a first-time buyer, you are most likely staying in your rental for a few days beyond your purchase so that you have time to move everything over. Most repeat buyers, however, will buy and sell on the same day. In this situation, they need to sell their old home to have the money to buy their new home, but they can’t get into their new home for several hours after their old home closes, so there is often an overlap where they are still in their old house because they have nowhere else to go.
Technically, once the deal has closed, the vendors are required to vacate the property. If you arrive at your home and the sellers are still there, you can always call either your realtor or your lawyer, who can work with the vendor’s realtor or lawyer to encourage the vendors to finish their move. However, the best advice is to be patient and understand that moving day can be very stressful. And when you are buying and selling on the same day, talk to your mortgage agent about bridge financing to ease the stress on yourself.
