This is an archived post from my other blog. It's a year old article, but still helpful.
May 5th, 2006 categories: Real Estate News, For Home Buyers
I ran across this today from the national association of Realtors. There is always some lively discussion when it comes to the question of divulging things that may have happened to people in the house. Murders, suicides, other crimes, or just someone passing away of old age is it obligatory for the listing agent/seller to disclose this to the buyer? My experience is that it would never have mattered to the homeowner had they not known.
But knowing something happened in the home does freak out some people and it sends others away no longer considering the house as a viable option.
Just last month I closed on a condo with a great young woman, it's her first home. All we knew was that an elderly woman lived there and that she was the original owner. AT THE CLOSING TABLE, we find out that the woman was agoraphobic and NEVER left the house in 30 plus years and died in the home. My buyer was asked to sign a sheet of paper saying as much. It didn't bother her too much but she'd rather not have known.
Funny thing. Many people believe that if the incident in question was public knowledge, then the seller does not have to disclose. I always suggest using the golden rule. The National Association of Realtors and the State of Ohio pretty much leaves it up to the sellers. In the meantime, here's the article which is pretty vanilla:
REALTOR� Magazine Online -Daily News- Buyers Regret Not Asking: Anyone Die Here?
add to:
This entry was posted on Friday, May 5th, 2006 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Real Estate News, For Home Buyers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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