Hi there friends. This is Marilyn Boudreaux, with Century 21 Bono Realty and today I wanted to talk to sellers, specifically, and talk about listing your home. So many times when I go out and meet with home sellers the first thing that they tell me is, “We’re selling our home as-is. The price is firm and we’re not making any repairs.” I’m always pointing that out that yes, everything typically conveys as-is, however, the buyer still has an inspection and a due diligence period to go out and inspect the home. The reality is when we’re working with buyers and we’re walking through that home and they decide to write a contract, we’ve all just seen what our eyes can see. Yes, we’ve walked through the home and it’s immaculate, it’s beautiful, everyone’s in love, everything’s great to our eyes. However, we are not looking behind the walls. We are not electricians, we are not AC techs nor do we know anything about plumbing and water heaters and insulation, and just the list goes on. We get into a home inspection list.
So that is what the home inspection is for, and every buyer has the right to conduct that because they don’t know about those things. So as a home seller, you have to understand that for the buyer to pay this premium price, that we’ve already negotiated at, there’s then a kind of a renegotiating period when we get to inspection. What if the home inspector goes out and then flags the roof and we get a roofer to go out there and say, “Okay, the roof is at the end of its lifespan. This is a 20 year old roof.” Well, now that home buyer is going to be a little bit nervous. It’s going to be more difficult for them to obtain insurance and their insurance company may require an adjuster to go out and look at the roof in order for them to get a binder for closing, which is required with your insurance.
The other thing is, they’re looking at it is, “Wait a second, I gave you your premium price. I don’t want to have to turn around and put on a $20,000 roof.” So you have to look at it sometimes from the buyer perspective of what would you do if you were the buyer? You are expecting that you’re buying a house in good condition and you want everything working properly, especially if you are paying a premium price. So that’s why what I always recommend to home sellers is when you’re listing your house, prior to that, it’s just a good idea to get your AC serviced. If you know that you’ve had an issue with a bathroom before, maybe get a plumber out to ensure that that drain is flowing properly. Look at your gutters, clean them out. These are some simple things that are going to make your life a little bit easier as the seller when you do get that contract that comes in, because those are going to be some things that the buyers are going to ask for and we get into a renegotiating situation.
So yes, you may sell your home as-is, but just remember that in order to get that premium price, the house needs to be pristine because in the buyer’s eyes, what they’re thinking is, “I’m not going to give you this price if I’ve got to then go in and fix all of these things that you’re not willing to fix.” So if you have further questions about inspections or about listing your home, let’s have a consultation and delve into that a little bit farther. You can reach me at 499-9592. Thanks, everyone. Have a wonderful day.
