Interesting question from one of my sellers today regarding a minor defect listed on the property disclosure. Should we fix the defect or just list it on the disclosure and forget about it and let the buyer deal with it? Rule number one two and three on disclosure is disclose, disclose, disclose! So listing it on the disclosure is the right and necessary thing to do. As far as fixing it, by all means, unless you simply do not have the financial ability to do so. The reason is simple. In selling a home we want to get full market value. It is difficult to get full market value on a sub standard home. Fixing needed items keeps the home as standard. Likewise if there are improvements they often bring the home above standard thereby increasing the market value. Another concern comes into play during negotiations where most buyers greatly overestimate the actual cost of repair. As an example on a home I recently sold the seller did not want to replace the carpets because they were "not completely worn out" well this is a very subjective response. As far as my buyer was concerned the carpets useful life ended along with Disco. The buyer wanted a credit of $10,000. The seller agreed to a credit of $6000 and we had the carpets replaced with a decent quality product for $5300. The other issue at play here is that likely the seller would have gotten more money with a shorter market time by simply stepping up and paying the $5300 instead of the $6000. The point here is not the difference of $700 between the negotiated amount and the actual but the lower sales price the seller received along with the longer market time. Take a look at the data available from my friend Krista Jones of Home Stage Advantage, the market time and price of staged homes vs. unstaged. Bottom line, pay a little now or a lot later.
This blog was written by Brian Leavitt, a Licensed Real Estate Broker and Licensed Mortgage Broker representing Northstone Real Estate Inc, and Northstone Mortgage.
Brian serves clients within the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
You can contact Brian directly by phone at 800-806-3145 or by email at brian@northstone.net. Click here to view his client newsletter.
Brian is licensed with the Washington State Department of Licensing and the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions License number 510-MB-19802 and is a member of the Seattle King County Association of Realtors and Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
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