So you are selling your house For Sale By Owner and you are wondering if you have to disclose anything to a Buyer? The answer is Absolutely Yes! There is a saying among Real Estate Agents and it is “Disclose, Disclose, Disclose!” The #1 Reason a Seller gets sued after a transaction is for their lack of Disclosure. I’m Sherri Echols, Broker Associate with RE/MAX Bryan – College Station and if you are selling your home without representation by a Realtor, you will need to access your state Disclosure forms online and make sure they are thoroughly filled out. Real estate disclosure forms reveal a Seller’s known material or legal defects about the property. These forms are legally required by the Sellers in most States and will need to be reviewed by a Buyer when they make an offer. Even if an item has been fixed in the past, you will need to disclose it. Anything that has ever been added, fixed, modified, repaired, replaced or changed needs to be disclosed. Also, it’s important to know that If you are already in contract with a Buyer, if anything changes with your house during that time, you will need to update the disclosure forms as well. In the event a Buyer does a home inspection, and your contract falls through, and you have to put your house back on the market, you have to, by law, disclose all the newly found items and defects that were found on the home inspections reports to a new buyer. Under California law, sellers must disclose all “material facts” that could impact a buyer’s decision to purchase a property. These facts may include details such as past flooding, foundation issues, or termite damage. Providing these disclosures to serious potential buyers as soon as possible decreases the likelihood of a buyer cancelling the offer later due to information found in the disclosures. There is a lot more that goes into disclosures like any knowledge that may affect the desirability of the property, for example something nearby that is proposed to be built like a garbage dump area or having a registered sex offender in the area. There is a lot more to think about when it comes to disclosures, when selling, so give me a call and we can chat to see if FSBO is the best option for you. Let’s connect and discuss your real estate goals and how we can achieve them together! I’m your Community Market Leader Sherri Echols, a helping hand for a happy home.
