Selling A Home? Know What You Must Disclose
Posted on: 10 October 2017
Your goal when selling your home will be to make it sound as appealing as possible to potential buyers. What doesn't make a home sound appealing is when you must state all of the things that are wrong with it. While you may want to avoid talking about damage that has happened, you must disclose it in some situations. Not telling a buyer could lead to a lawsuit where you are sued for repairs that they buyer makes after the sale of the home is finished.
Basement Flooding
Have you ever had water in your basement? If so, a buyer must know that it was dealt with accordingly to eliminate mold growth and various water damage that can happen as a result. While you may think that basement flooding is something that will scare away a buyer, know that basement flooding is quite common.
You can use this opportunity to tell the potential buyer everything you did to fix the situation. This can include installing a sump pump, having professional waterproofing done, and having a professional come in and do the water restoration. These things may be seen as benefits to a home, since they know the situation was handled properly.
Lead Paint
Dealing with lead paint can be quite tricky, since you must know with absolute certainty that you had lead paint in your home in order to disclose it. Simply assuming that you have lead paint in your home is not enough, because you can only verify it by testing the paint and seeing the test results first hand.
If you had old painted windows replaced in your home, and the paint was never tested for lead, you shouldn't have to disclose anything to a potential buyer. You do need to speak up when you had a test done and it came back positive for lead.
Foundation Cracking
Any issues with foundation cracking, even if they have been repaired, will be something that needs to be disclosed. A repaired foundation will be very difficult for a home inspector to notice, which is one of the reasons why you must tell a potential buyer of the problems.
Once again, this is an opportunity to let a buyer know what company performed the foundation repair so they know it was handled properly. You can even provide photos of the repair to show how it was done to ease any worries.
Speak with your agent about other aspects that need to be disclosed when selling a home.
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