Real Estate Tip of the Day
Keep your home maintained even after a Buyer’s inspection
- Your home passed Buyer’s inspection
- What if something breaks down in your home after inspection?
- That Water Heater that has been hanging on by a thread breaks down a day before closing – now what?
- Were you thinking that you’d just keep it all a secret?
You listed your home for sale, your promptly found a Buyer for your home, the Buyer’s Inspector couldn’t find anything wrong with your home – thank goodness! Who ever thought selling a home would be so easy? Wait a minute, not so fast. Oh, don’t tell me, something just happened when everything seemed to be falling into place so nicely. What happened? You went to turn on the water in your shower to let it run so it would warm up for a nice relaxing shower. You lollygagged the usual time you do, as you wait for the water to warm up, as nothing is worse than stepping into a cold shower. It’s time to get in and as you stepped in, your toe met with cold water. You checked the faucet to make sure you had adjusted the faucet correctly towards the hot water and you did, then why no hot water? Well, after a thorough examination it has been determined that your hot water heater just broke down. You can’t believe it, a day before closing, just one more day is all you had to go for everything to be just perfect. So now what? You don’t want to have to spend any money. You say to yourself, no problem, I just won’t tell the Buyer. Let me tell you why that’s not a good idea.
Usually, right before the Buyer will head over to the closing, they will perform what is called a “Buyer’s walk through”. The Buyer wants to make sure that your home is in the same condition as when they were last there during the home inspection. If they come across anything that is now wrong with your home, it will have to be addressed and resolved before they may agree to go forward with the purchase of your home. So now in your case with your water heater having just broke down, they will likely want the water heater to be in working order; heating water. With this in mind, you can expect that the Buyer will expect a new water heater. Obviously, there won’t be enough time to buy and install a new water heater so they’ll request that you, as Seller, put money into escrow with the Title Company/Attorney’s office to hold to use to replace the broken water heater.
It may not be a water heater that breaks down in your home. It may be something that you chose to not care for as you usually would, because hey, it didn’t matter now, you’re selling your home. That’s the worst thing that you can do once you’re under contract to sell your home. You want to continue to care for your home, perhaps even more so than you usually would just so you can be safe that nothing goes wrong that will cause the Buyer to ask for money from you before closing. As I’ve said before, how all the little details and maintenance of your home matters, it matters right through to the day of closing. Once you’ve received the funds from the sale of your home and both you and Buyer have signed all of your home sale documentation, you can then forget about being concerned about your home and not before. You don’t want to get a Buyer all up in arms on the day of closing when they find out something is wrong with their home. It’s a very stressful time and even something little could push a Buyer over the edge to cancel the purchase of your home. It’s best to continue to maintain your home and if something breaks, fix it. You don’t want to risk the Buyer discovering your cover up.
Call me, Lynn Pineda, at 954-464-1100 and I’ll provide you with additional Real Estate tips and answer your question; “should I sell my home now”. Or feel free to email me at LynnP@ImagineYourHouse.com.
Real Estate Article written by South Florida Realtor, Lynn Pineda. eXp Coral Springs Realty.
