[frayedends]

Originally Posted by BrianL99

If a Buyer is offering rebate/discount to replace the roof, as you point out, obviously the roof needs replacing.

Often Buyers want Sellers to believe they're making a "all cash, no contingency offer", come up with some seemingly innocuous "inspection" or something to give them a few days to arrange the money or decide if they really want the property.

In this case, it's very clear what happened in my opinion. The Buyer was making an offer, sight unseen. Buyer knew (or suspected) that the Seller wouldn't accept an Offer with a Contingency that the Buyer has a couple of days to come view the property in person ... so they came up with an idea that might work ...

The potential Buyer made an Offer, with a seemingly logical contingency ... "I just need a couple of days to make sure I can get insurance". Such a contingency might fly under normal circumstances, but when the Seller already knows the roof is bad and he's got a real "no contingency" offer coming in, he did what any savvy Seller would do ... take the Offer without conditions.

What I would have done in the Buyer's situation, was to be more surreptitious. If I wanted to make a "Full Price, no Contingency" Offer, but really wanted 48-72 hours of leeway to back out, I would have made the offer subject to "receipt/review of all Rules, Regulations, Covenants & Restrictions" affecting the property (or some such language as that).

The Buyer obviously knew the roof was bad, but wanted some "back out time", without being obvious about it.

This is exactly right! The idea of a contingency that the roof is insurable when the seller already said it needed replacement. The buyer just looking for a few extra days to back out.