For Sale By Owner
Are you selling your Silicon Valley home? Are you motivated to save on commissions? Well, you are not alone.
In a recent survey of Marin Home owners more than 60% of the owners expressed interest in selling their own home! That’s no surprising since the savings on a $1M sales could be as much as $80,000!
But do you have the legal, contract and negotiation experience to deal with the buyers and their agent’s on your own? In fact, one of the major challenges for FSBO sales is knowledge of contract and the real estate disclosures.
Here are the 4 Repair and Alteration questions that any California sellers must show to buyers on your For Sale By Owner (FSBO) sale:
Are you (seller) aware of any alterations, modifications, remodeling, replacement or material repairs on the property (including those resulting from Home Warranty Claims)?
“Material” repairs in this case means any information that if disclosed could cause the buyer to change their mind. For example, if you have installed recessed (canned) lights in your entire house without permits; then your buyer might opt to change their decision to purchase your home or make a lower price. This is material and critical information since the home could catch fire due to faulty wiring.
Bottom line is that if you done any minor alterations to your property, you are well advise to disclose as much detail as possible and allow the buyers to make an informed decisions about the risks associated with buying your home.
Is seller aware of any on going or recurring maintenance on the property?
On this question, if you have a drain that clogs every few months, then that is considered material information that you will need to disclose to your buyers. We have large trees on our Los Gatos home and every few years their roots jam and clogs the drain pipes. Even though this could be a minor annoyance at best, we will show this information when we list our home for sale. And you should do the same for your FSBO sale.
Are you (seller) aware of any part of the property being painted in the past 12 month?
This question is intended to cover the Lead-Based paint information for homes built prior to 1978. Granted no such paint is soldin California, but if you have painted the home in the past 12 months, you need to identify the location of the application and add that to the Lead-Based paint disclosure if you suspect any such paint might have been used.
If the home is a pre-1978 Property, were any renovation (Sanding, cutting, demolition) of the Lead-Based paint surfaces completed in compliance with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines?
Questions 3 and 4 go hand in hand with the Lead-Based Paint disclosure that is also required to be disclosed to any buyer. That Your inability to answer any or all of these questions could create challenges for your For Sale by Owner transaction.
So, Contact Us if you want to avoid any risks on your FSBO sale.