The purchase or sale of a home can be scary, with plenty of bumps in the road, but occasionally there are pleasant surprises. In the spirit of the Halloween season, I’ve listed some of my more memorable tricks and treats my clients and I have come across in the home buying process:
Trick-You sign your paperwork, collect the keys to the house and as you carry your spouse over the threshold, you are greeted with mounds of trash. It turns out, the sellers were just as anxious as you are about the sale, so anxious that they packed their belongings and fled, hoping you wouldn’t mind taking twenty or thirty bags worth of trash to the curb for them.
Treat-On the other hand, as you walk into your new home you are pleasantly surprised that Mr. Clean has taken care of business-the house has been professionally cleaned!
Trick-As you test out all the new gadgets, you go to what once was the programmable thermostat panel only to realize that the sellers loved it as much as you do, so much that they dismantled it and took it with them.
Treat- During contract negotiations, you lost the one to have the seller leave the chandelier, but after closing, you realized they left you a gift and didn’t take it after all.
Trick-The seller took all of the garage door opener remotes and now you have to buy new ones and program them.
Treat-The Seller left all of the appliance manuals, the builder information book and detailed information about the house, including a “welcome home” personal note.
Trick- The buyer’s lender didn't tell the title company or your agent the day before closing that they determined they needed to extend closing. You took the day off, showed up at the title company and realized you were stood up.
Treat-While you were vacationing in Toronto, the title company arranged for a closing agent to meet you at your hotel so you could close remotely.
Trick-the homebuilder says they have central vacuum and that is the tipping point that entices you to buy the home versus another similar home. After you decide to put down $5,000 of earnest money, you visit the upgrade selection center and are told that this option is no longer available.
Treat: You’ve decided to look at new construction one more time, and you arrive when they are having a promotion worth $10,000 of upgrades.
Trick: The agent for the home you want to see won’t return calls to set up the appointment. Your agent tells you a few days later that it is now under contract.
Treat: A friend of a friend tells you of a home in her neighborhood about to go up for sale and you buy it before it’s listed.
Here’s hoping that all of your home shopping experiences are treats!
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