"And now, the rest of the story" — What does "as is" really mean?

Every time I hear, or read, a one-sided story, such as when listening to Fox News or reading some Featured ActiveRain posts, I always think of Paul Harvey and go digging for "the rest of the story"?

Today I'm thinking of Paul Harvey because of Barry Owen's currently Featured Post titled What we have here is a failure to communicate. That got me to thinking about how beautiful the English language is, how ugly some people can make it, and how fluent it is as definitions and spellings of phrases and words change over time.

After reading Barry's post, it's painfully obvious that he speaks as a Seller's agent, seeming to forget that there are two sides to a transaction, and each side, to the best of my understanding, has the privilege of negotiating to its own advantage. If the Seller's side "caves in" and accedes to the "demands" of the Buyer's side, doesn't that just mean that the Buyer had a better negotiator? Often it does. However, it could also mean that the Seller's situation has changed, and a Buyer's agent won't know that. In fact, sometimes even the Seller's agent doesn't know that.

That's why I think it's advisable not to get emotionally charged up when in the process of negotiating, regardless of which side you are on. Isn't that why the Seller AND Buyer hired real estate agents (and, hopefully, Realtors at that!) to represent them. Agents are not emotionally attached to the property and should be able to keep emotions out of the negotiations.

Even Barry let emotions get into his Featured Post when he said, "Seems every time I get into one of those Twilight Zone negotiations in which I feel like I'm speaking plain English and the other agent is speaking some obscure dialect of Tribal Gibberish...."

I'd be willing to bet that the negotiations were not in the Twilight Zone and that both agents were speaking plain English. Emotions. Everything that Barry said in his post as a demonstration of how the Buyer's agent was speaking Tribal Gibberish was a very simple negotiation:

• Seller REALLY wants to sell....
• [Seller] commences doing the math to see if there's any way to make the deal work at that price.
• This leads to a congressional special session on the seller's side of the equation involving REALTOR, Lender, Banker, TITLE Company, & perhaps the REALTOR and Seller of the house the Seller intends to buy next.
• The planets align and the Seller with great trepidation figures out that the price will work . . . by a hair . . . BUT there's NO MONEY whatsoever for repairs at this price.
• Seller ACCEPTS Buyer's "Final Counter" with a VERY clear message that it will be "AS-IS with Seller making NO repairs".
• Buyer does inspection 5 days later and discovers some things that could use fixin' and knows that she has agreed to buy the property "AS-IS" or terminate the deal based on that inspection.
• Buyer's agent calls Listing agent and SQUAWKS - Says the Seller should have DISCLOSED these atrocious issues . . . that they are VERY SERIOUS issues and that the Seller will have to deal with issues with ANY future Buyer . . . and that without question, the world will end with a vortex creating a black hole in the basement of this house if the Seller does not address this frightening material defect.
• Initially, Listing agent is alarmed and hits the panic button . . . Calls the Seller to see if he knows about this vortex in his basement?????
• Seller is VERY alarmed and dashes to the basement to SEE this vortex lest it be so advanced that he might need to move his family immediately to safety.
• Seller sees nothing alarming and cries foul.
• Seller is now [upset]. . . accepted a low offer and is now seeing the writing on the wall - baited and switched . . . Seller lambasts Listing Agent and hangs up the phone.
• Listing agent now feels pinched . . . The Seller is [upset]. . . and the Buyer and Buyer's agent is [sic] expecting this "non-problem" to be FIXED.
• Wait a minute! What's the paper say? "AS-IS"
• Refreshed, Listing agent calls Buyer's agent with the reminder that "at the agreed upon price, this property is to be sold AS-IS with Seller making no repairs" . . .
• Does your Buyer want to proceed with this transaction or not? Please send me something IN WRITING no later than the expiration of the Inspection period. We have nothing more to talk about.

I've only been a real estate agent since May 2005, and I haven't done near as many transactions as a lot of people here at ActiveRain, but there's nothing in that dialogue that I haven't already experienced multiple times.

There is the possibility that the Seller's situation has changed. Perhaps he won a small fortune in the lottery and can now make the requested repairs. Perhaps mom and dad came by and saw how concerned their son was about selling and that things might fall apart, so mom and dad said, "Get the repairs done and we'll pay for them." Both of those are true things that happened to me as a Seller's agent. There's a good possibility that the Seller's agent might not know those things, and there is a GREAT possibility that the Buyer's agent doesn't know those things.

Now let's look at a couple of things that happened to me as a Buyer's agent on some "as is" properties:

1. Seller pulled the property off the market because he couldn't afford to do the Section 1 termite repairs.
2. Seller spent $5,000 making repairs to a flat roof that the home inspector and the roofing contractor said needed repairs.
3. Seller spent $1,800 replacing an old Zinsco electric panel.

Remember, those were all "as is" properties. Maybe in my naive youth as a real estate agent, I was just a better negotiator.

As a last thought, Barry says, "Don't let gibberish trick you into compromising your representation of your client's best interests."

Let's look at that from the Buyer's perspective. Here's my rewording of it: "Don't let gibberish trick you into compromising your representation of your client's best interests." Did you notice that not a single word changed?

(Pictures have been used to help defuse an emotional issue
and were provided courtesy of Russel Ray Photos
where you can get inexpensive, royalty-free photographs.)

♫♪♫♫♪♫

If you're looking for a great real estate agent in San Diego, well,
let me Google one for you.

I'm available 24/7, so feel free to contact me by phone or email.

Jim Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award Mission Valley
California DRE License #01458572
619-729-5701
jimfrimmer@century21award.com
Mission Valley Condos Information

♪♫♫♫♪

Try RusselRayPhotos.com for inexpensive, royalty-free photos.

♫♪♫♫♪♫

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