Reasons To Be Upfront With Your Agent When Listing Your Home
When you are ready to sell your home, you might worry that no one will want to buy it if they know about its flaws. While this can be true in some cases, you should still be completely honest and upfront with your real estate agent when you list your home. Here are three good reasons to let your agent know about the flaws your home has:
You Have to Sign a Full-Disclosure Form
The first thing to understand is that when you list a home for sale you are required to sign a form called a full-disclosure form. This form legally requires that you disclose any known flaws of the house, and it primarily asks for details of flaws relating to the systems of the house, water leaks, or mold issues. If you do not know about the flaws, you obviously do not have to include them. If you do know about them, you must legally include them on this form.
Your Home's Flaws Will Come Out Eventually
Secondly, you should realize that the person who buys your house will eventually find out about the flaws. For example, if your basement leaks every time it rains, the new owner will find this out as soon as it rains. The same thing is true for any type of flaw. The owners will find it out and probably will not be happy about it when it happens.
You Could Get Sued
The last thing to know is that ultimately the new owners could sue you for the flaws if it is obvious that you knew about them. If you really did not know they existed, it could be hard for them to win the lawsuit, but if you did know about them, they will probably win. If this happens, you could end up having to pay out a lot of money to remedy the problem.
The bottom line is that it is better to let people know what they are getting into when buying your house, even if the problems are minor, but especially if the house has some big problems that you know about.
Every home has its own set of flaws, but it is always better to reveal the flaws you know about when you list your home. If you are ready to list your home, contact a local real estate agent today. He or she can help you with every step of the process, including with filling out the full-disclosure form.
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