Hey, Look What the Sellers Took! Oh No, Look What the Sellers Left!!

Some of the biggest disagreements I have seen between buyers and sellers start with misunderstandings about what items are to remain in the house that is being sold, and which things the sellers can, or should take with them.  Emotions can run very high over those beautiful bedroom drapes that the buyer loved - now gone; the hole in the yard where that fragrant rose is now missing; the cabinets in the garage that the buyer hoped were staying - and didn't.  If anything, emotions run even higher over the things the seller left behind that the buyer didn't want - those 50 cans of dried - up paint in the garage, the little pile of chicken wire over to the side of the house, the stinking garbage can full of the food that was in the refrigerator...  Oh yes, emotions can run very, very high!

 

Most of this can be avoided really easily.  When you list your house for sale, if you have bedrooms curtains that match your bedspread, an antique chandelier your great-aunt Millie left you, a rose bush your husband bought you on your first anniversary....if you really can't bear to part with them, please pack them/remove them right now.  Although you can also have your agent note in the listing that something is reserved and not included, you can just bet that once the buyer sees them and wants them, it won't be pretty.  And buyers - if you really want those cupboards in the garage, please have your agent note that in the offer on the house.  ANYTHING that might be a "gray" area as to whether it stays or goes needs to be spelled out and agreed to by both buyers and sellers - so much easier than finding out later that there were totally different ideas of what would be removed.

And as far as those items that stay and the buyers did NOT want them - sellers, just ask.  If you are pretty sure the buyers would find a use for the 3 dozen empty plastic flower pots alongside the garage or the pile of scrap wood or the 5 or 6 old tires - please don't assume that to be true.  Many buyers will be really, really angry if the first thing they have to do when they move in is take a load of your stuff to the landfill & pay to dispose of it.