For Sale By Owner
In a recent survey of Marin Home owners more than 59% of the owners expressed interest in selling their own home! That’s no surprising given the commissions savings could add up to $80,000!
But how will you know if you are up to the challenge? Do you have the legal, contract and negotiation experience to deal with the buyers and their agent’s on your own?
Well, here’s the 4 Repair and Alteration questions that sellers must disclose to any potential buyer even if you are planning on selling your own home:
1) Are you (seller) aware of any alterations, modifications, remodeling, replacement or material repairs on the property (including those resulting from Home Warranty Claims)?
You will have to understand the meaning of “material” in order to answer this question properly. In this case, “material” means any information that if disclosed could change the buyer’s mind about buying your home. Fore 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 considered material information critical to buyers and not disclosing it, could come back to bite you since the buyers could force you to cover the cost of getting these repairs approved or code-compliant even up to 5 years after your sale.
Bottom line is that if you done any minor alteratinos 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.
2) 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.
3) Are you (seller) aware of any part of the property being painted in the past 12 month?
This question goes hand in hand with the question on Lead-Based paint disclosure where for homes built prior to 1978. Granted no such paint is being sold in California, but if you have painted the home in the past 12 months, you are required to identify the location of the application and add that to the Lead-Baaed paint disclosure if you suspect any such paint might have been used.
4) 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 have any question about these requirements.
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