Selling a home is stressful on its own, but selling while buying your next home, and dealing with repair negotiations tied to an HOA? That’s the kind of situation that tests even the calmest homeowner. Recently, one of our clients walked through exactly that scenario, and her story is a perfect example of why honesty, expertise, and good representation matter so much—especially when not everything is in your control.
Our client was selling her townhome, which came with an unusual twist: she owned everything inside the walls, but the HOA owned everything outside of them. That meant exterior maintenance, exterior repairs, and anything tied to the outside perimeter fell squarely under the HOA’s jurisdiction, not hers.
Everything was moving smoothly with her buyer…until the inspection.
During the option period, the inspector discovered cast iron pipes connected to the exterior water spigot (a garden hose faucet). Normally, that alone isn’t a crisis, especially because the home was built on a pier-and-beam foundation rather than slab. Cast iron actually tends to last longer in pier-and-beam homes, so there was no immediate reason to assume these pipes were failing or required urgent replacement.
But this discovery landed in a legal and logistical grey area. Those pipes were part of the exterior. The seller could not replace them even if she wanted to. Only the HOA could handle the work, with their own contractors, at their own pace.
The buyer, however, wanted the cast iron replaced with PVC before closing or the deal was off.
That’s where things got complicated.
Our seller had already placed a contingent offer on her next home. She needed her current sale to close in order to close on her purchase. She didn’t have the option to push out timelines or start over with new buyers unless absolutely necessary. But she also couldn’t promise a repair she was legally prohibited from making.
This is one of the toughest spots a homeowner can be in:
Do you promise the buyer what they want, even though you can’t guarantee it? Or do you stay honest, risk losing the buyer now, and protect yourself from bigger fallout later?
Under that kind of pressure, it would be easy—tempting, even—to reassure the buyer, cross your fingers, and hope the HOA acted quickly. But that’s not how our seller does business…and it’s definitely not how we do business at Nail & Key.
She chose honesty. Even though it meant the buyer might walk. Even though it meant her next closing was at risk. She stood her ground, communicated clearly, and let the buyer know exactly what she could and could not control.
And here’s where the power of experience and reputation comes in.
We met with the buyer’s agent and laid out the situation plainly. We couldn’t contractually promise the repair would be completed by closing, because that simply wasn’t within the seller’s authority. But we could promise that we were actively working with the HOA, pushing the request forward, and doing everything in our power to facilitate the repair in a timely way.
Together, we crafted an amendment that said closing would not be delayed as long as the repair was underway at the time of closing.
It was a creative solution that protected the seller, reassured the buyer, and respected the HOA’s process.
And the buyer agreed.
They didn’t need the repair 100% complete; they just needed evidence that the wheels were in motion. Once they had that, they were comfortable moving forward. The deal closed, our client closed on her next home, and the repair continued without holding up anyone’s life.
It was a win all around, and it happened because everyone chose good faith over guarantees.
The truth is, you can’t control every part of a real estate transaction. You can’t control inspection findings, or HOA timelines, or the speed of contractors chosen by someone else. But you can control honesty. You can control transparency. And you can choose an agent who advocates for you while protecting you from making promises that could come back to haunt you.
At Nail & Key, that’s exactly what we do. We help you navigate the gray areas, keep your options open, and make the best choices possible with the variables you’re working with.
Because when things get complicated, as they often do, you deserve a team that knows how to guide you through it. And we make a pretty good team.
