Comments on: When selling a house does everything have to work?

By: glenn

glenn — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:51:57 +0000

I have sold homes for 31 years.

When a buyer walks thru a house and finds something in bad repair they figure there are ten more things they did not find. They reduce the price drastically to adjust for all the "unfound" items. Someone that is honest and smart about buyer reactions can help walk thru your Mom’s house and give her advice of what to do to get the most money out of the house. A good local real estate agent could help.

Reducing the price only lowers their payment a very small amount- so it would not really give the buyer any money they can use to make the repairs.

By: loanmasterone

loanmasterone — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:51:57 +0000

You are correct about taking some off the sales price for items that might not work.

There is a up side to that as well as a down side.

The upside is that some would accept this because they might want to change the colors in a particular room or they like a particular brand name which is not the one your mother has.

The downside is that some would want things to work immediately upon moving into the house and not have to worry about repairing or fixing anything. For this type buyer this could be a deal breaker.

Most buyers now want to have an inspection report done by a state licensed inspector. This inspection would alert the new buyer to anything wrong with the appliances that would be left in the property to include necessary repairs to the house itself.

If there are accommodations made for the buyer these accommodations must be made in escrow and signed off by both the sellers and buyers on an addendum to the original sales contract

If there are still questions you should take the advise of your real estate agent as to what is normal in your area.

I hope this has been of some benefit to you, good luck.

"FIGHT ON"

By: SLAPPY

SLAPPY — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:51:57 +0000

Yes, especially if you sell through FHA

By: spalmer

spalmer — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:51:57 +0000

Not everything has to be in perfect condition… that’s what negotiation is about. However, some loans (like FHA) will require that certain things be in safe condition and working. Appliances do not have to work. The potential buyer can request that it work and the seller can accept, or deny. The home inspection will give the lovely list of items that aren’t working properly. When I purchased my home, there were about 8-10 things that were relatively minor and needed fixed. I asked the seller to fix 5 of the items, and I took care of the other few when I moved in.

By: zuchinno

zuchinno — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:51:57 +0000

Not everything has to work; this is the way that some people buy a "fixer upper." However legally you do have to disclose any and everything that is wrong with the house and subtract the cost of repair from the asking price. The lower price is why people buy fixer uppers.
In addition, everything that’s wrong with the house depreciates from the overall value beyond the price you subtract for repairs.
Most importantly if you don’t fully disclose the problems with the house, you could get sued by the future owners, so be careful.