Selling a house comes with plenty of last-minute tasks, from packing the final boxes to making sure everything is ready for the new owners. But one couple preparing to close on their home received an unexpected request: the buyer wanted them to mow the lawn again.
The sellers had already kept up with their regular lawn service, so the complaint caught them off guard. With closing just a day away, they turned to Reddit to ask whether the request was reasonable and what they were actually expected to do.
The buyer drove by and thought the grass was too long
According to the seller, their realtor texted at 9 p.m. that the buyer had driven past the property and thought the grass looked long. The buyer wanted the lawn mowed before closing.
The couple hadn’t neglected the yard while their house was on the market. They had continued paying for weekly lawn service, and the grass had last been cut on Friday, just days before the request came in.
It was their first time selling a house, and they weren’t sure whether they were expected to arrange another mowing simply because the buyer wanted one. The seller said her husband was particularly frustrated by the request.
The sellers say they had already prepared the yard for closing
In a follow-up, the seller explained that they had responded to their realtor with photos from their landscaper showing the freshly cut lawn. They had even arranged for extra weed-whacking to get the property ready for closing.
Despite that, their agent wanted them to “compromise” with the buyer. The seller was trying to figure out what a realistic response would look like, while her husband wanted to reject the request outright.
The disagreement wasn’t really about how much effort it takes to mow a lawn. From the sellers’ perspective, they had already maintained the property and were now being asked to do the same job again at the last minute.
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Reddit users questioned why the sellers should have to mow it again
Many responses focused on the timing of the request. The lawn had been cut less than a week earlier, and the sellers were already preparing to hand over the house.
Several people suggested that the couple simply tell their realtor when the grass was last mowed and leave it at that. Others proposed passing along the lawn service’s contact information so the buyer could arrange future maintenance after closing.
Some thought the realtors could handle the request
Another recurring suggestion was that an agent could arrange and pay for an additional mowing if they believed it was necessary to keep the transaction moving.
One person who identified themselves as a real estate agent said that, in a similar situation, they would arrange for a lawn service to visit after closing rather than pass the request along as another task for the sellers.
Others felt the sellers’ realtor should still tell them what the buyer had requested, even if the agent considered it unreasonable. From that perspective, keeping the sellers informed was part of the job; asking them to compromise was a separate question.
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The couple still had to decide how to respond
The discussion offered plenty of opinions, but it didn’t establish whether the sellers’ contract required any additional lawn maintenance before closing. The post also didn’t include a final update confirming whether the lawn was mowed again or how the sale went.
What made the situation so frustrating for the couple was that they believed they had already done their part. They had maintained the yard throughout the sale, arranged extra work before closing, and provided photos when the buyer raised a concern.
With just one day left before handing over the keys, they wondered whether a freshly maintained lawn should have been enough or whether they were expected to accommodate one more request.
