This is the stretch that decides whether a contract becomes a sale. North Carolina handles it differently from a lot of states, and it is worth understanding.
One window, not a list of contingencies
Instead of a series of separate contingencies the buyer has to clear, the buyer gets a due diligence period. During that window they can inspect anything, review anything, work on their loan and their insurance, and terminate for any reason at all — or for no reason — with their earnest money returned.
When the period ends, that unrestricted right to walk away ends with it. What happens after that is not a single rule. The buyer’s remaining rights, whether a failure to close counts as a default, and what becomes of the earnest money and the due diligence fee all depend on the contract, any addenda and the circumstances. It is a question for your closing attorney rather than a foregone conclusion.
So the whole game is getting through due diligence cleanly and on time.
Inspections
Most buyers hire a licensed home inspector, and some bring in specialists for the roof, the HVAC or the structure. On coastal property, expect more of them than you would inland.
- A wood-destroying insect report, and a septic or well evaluation if you are not on public systems
- A survey — especially oceanfront and soundfront, where setbacks, CAMA lines and the actual lot boundary matter
- Pilings and structural inspection under an elevated home
- Moisture and mildew in the crawl space
- HVAC that has been sitting in salt air, and roof age, which insurers care about as much as buyers do
- Dock, bulkhead or boat lift condition
Insurance is its own inspection, in effect. The buyer’s wind, hail and flood quotes come back during this window, and on this island that is often the number that decides whether the deal survives. An elevation certificate in hand helps. So does knowing your own current premiums.
Loan approval and the appraisal
Take a pre-approval or a written loan commitment over a pre-qualification. One means a lender actually looked at the buyer’s documents. The other means somebody answered a few questions online.
The appraisal is ordered by the buyer’s lender, not by the buyer, and it answers the lender’s question rather than yours. In North Carolina it happens inside the due diligence period rather than behind a separate appraisal contingency of its own, so a value that comes in under contract price becomes a conversation about price, cash or termination while the buyer still holds the right to walk.
Waterfront and second-home property can be hard to appraise — comparable sales are thinner and no two lots are the same. I give the appraiser the recent sales I used to price the property, plus what makes yours different. It does not guarantee the number, but leaving them to guess does not help you.
The closing attorney and the title
North Carolina closings run through an attorney. Searching and passing on title, drafting the deed, and advising a party about what any of it means are the practice of law here and cannot be done by anybody else.
Their job is to search the recorded history of the property and certify that title comes to the buyer clear — no unreleased mortgages, liens, judgments, easements or restrictions that should not be there — and that anything new is properly recorded.
Title problems on older island property are usually old family deeds, unreleased liens, or easements nobody remembered. They are fixable, but not overnight, and they are yours to clear because you are the one promising to convey good title. If your property has been in the family a long time, tell me early and we will get the attorney looking sooner.
Repair requests and renegotiation
Two ways this goes. Either the inspections come back fine, the loan and the insurance line up, and due diligence ends on schedule — or the buyer comes back asking for repairs, a credit, or a lower price.
An inspection report is a list of observations, not a list of obligations. That request is not automatically something you have to accept, and it is not automatically an insult. What matters is whether what they found is real, what it would cost to fix, and what would happen if this buyer walked and the next one’s inspector found the same thing.
I will tell you which items I think are legitimate, which I would push back on, and what I would do in your position. Then you decide. Anything you do agree to should be written down with who does it, to what standard, and by when — and if you agreed to repairs, expect the buyer to re-inspect before closing.
Where this comes from
- NCREC — due diligence questions and answers (opens in a new tab)
- NCREC — what is the unauthorized practice of law? (opens in a new tab)
General information about how a North Carolina residential sale usually works, not legal, tax or financial advice. Every property and every contract is different. Your closing attorney is the right person to ask about your own transaction.