Selling your home is an very important and emotional decision, often incited by a life changing event like a birth, death, marriage or divorce. Additionally, as a seller you love your home. After all, if you hadn’t you would not have purchased in the first place. Then all the love and labor you have invested in it over time all adds up to another huge life changing event.
Some sellers are so in love with their home that they are confident that everyone else will overlook any flaws, perceived or actual, and want to buy it regardless. Other sellers aren’t so sure and are hoping that people will want to purchase in spite of them.
Once they get to this point, if they have a good agent, they will be asking themselves questions like:
“Should we be disclosing that we had mold in the guest bedroom?”
“Should we be disclosing that right behind our property, practically on the property line, that their is a proposed development for 15 foot 4 inch high condominiums in the works?”
“Should we be disclosing that the woman two doors down is crazy and sometimes stands outside her house screaming as neighbors walk by and flings dog feces at them?”
The answer is YES, to all of the questions above. And then some. You want to avoid any potential liability by disclosing every single thing that could possibly be construed as negative in as much detail as possible.
WHY? Because no property is perfect and someone will want yours anyway. AND because they will find out sooner or later on their own and if you haven’t disclosed it already you will either a) fall out of escrow; or b) the deal will close and they will sue you after the fact when they find out. Don’t be that seller.
WHEN should you disclose all this? The sooner the better. Hopefully before anyone even writes an offer. Trust me on this. I’m a Truth Teller. Even if it isn’t what you want to hear, it’s what you need to hear.
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Categories: home selling tips, Real Estate