A few things you don't want to do:
Don’t allow Deferred Maintenance ruin your chances of selling.
Ever hear the term “Deferred Maintenance”? What exactly does that mean anyway?
Deferred Maintenance is a nice way of referring to household maintenance that has not been kept up on or done. As a buyer walks through your home, they are falling in love with the floorplan, with how their family will live in this home and starting to imagine their furniture in there, right? Maybe. They also are walking through noticing all the repairs needed to your home and getting a sour taste in their mouth wondering what needs attention that they can’t see.
What to do? Have a friend walk your home and look for cosmetic items with a buyer’s eye for items that look dirty or worn- paint, carpet, dirty vents, crumbling grout etc. They will see things you have walked past for years. If you really want to make sure deferred maintenance does not become an issue once your home is for sale, get an inspection and fix whatever comes up on the inspection. You won’t catch every single item, but you have a good chance of the sale not falling out because of the condition of your home.
The next big one:
Disclose everything!!! Even if you think it is inconsequential.
Your agent should impress upon you the importance of disclosing everything. If they try to tell you that basement flooding or the car sliding down the driveway into the dining room isn't worth disclosing, RUN!
Case in point – had a home under contract recently. It was my buyer’s dream home. The seller filled out the required seller’s disclosure form, which indicated no known problems with the home in a number of categories. During the inspection a sizable water intrusion was discovered. Water stains on the baseboards and eventually mold was found near the source of the intrusion.
My buyer ‘s first reaction was to wonder what else they were hiding. What else was wrong with this home that the seller was not telling us about? The seller suddenly remembered an occasion where water came in through the window during a heavy rain season. Amazing how that works! The water intrusion is discovered and miraculously they remember it. Cynical? Maybe, or maybe just a reasonable reaction to an unfortunate situation. Not an insurmountable situation, just one that leaves the buyer uneasy.
In this case, if the seller had not allowed this water intrusion become Deferred Maintenance ( they did not remedy the situation as they could have) and disclosed the water intrusion and what they did to remedy it, this sale may have been saved. Now, the buyer must start over in their search for a home and the seller starts over looking for a new buyer. Hopefully they will amend their seller’s disclosure to lawfully show the issues at hand and maybe even fix them prior to the next buyer discovering them.
As a seasoned Realtor, we see deferred maintenance all the time. It doesn’t necessarily kill every sale, but it can put a seed of doubt in a buyer’s mind. How refreshing it is to list a home where it is evident the owner has taken care of it and in a timely manner. Sure makes our job easier, and the sale of the home a stronger possibility. In Park City we find buyers from out of the area will respond better to a home that needs less attention. It is usually too difficult to have repairs and remodeling done from a long distance.
The Moral of this story:
Maintain your home, get all items fixed prior to listing and DISCLOSE!
Looking for a ski property or investment property?
Call me for more information about Park City, Utah.
Heather Feldman 435-731-0803
