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Why Agents Should Explain all Home Selling Documents to Sellers
Explaining all home selling documents to sellers helps to avoid confusion later.
Home selling documents are not as simple and straight forward as some of us like to believe. Especially when you’re been in the real estate business for as many decades as I have, I have probably forgotten about more documents than the existing home selling documents we use today. We Sacramento listing agents can become complacent and assume sellers know everything when sellers usually know very little.
Even if the seller has sold homes in the past, almost every transaction is different, unique in some way. The home selling documents can also vary from transaction to transaction.
My client reminded me of this yesterday. I was working away on my computer set up out on my lanai, often pausing to look out at the white sail boats on the horizon when my phone rang with the song Sigh No More from Much Ado About Nothing. That’s my clue that I have a text. I love that melody. It makes me receptive to text messages. See how I set up those things?
My client had just arrived in Boise, Idaho, brrr. She texted me photos of the snow and remarked about the cold weather. We talked about a few things and then she said she was working on fixing an electrical problem and correcting something else in the house. I wondered why. So I asked her. She said the buyer put defects on the home selling document so she was fixing them.
Hmmm . . . I reminded her that the buyers did submit a Request for Repair, but that was for pest work, and we rejected it anyway. Her home is sold AS IS without any repairs. Certainly no electrical. My client said she found the repairs noted on the CR. That did not make sense to me. I asked for an explanation.
Well, she sent me the buyer’s agent AVID (agent visual inspection disclosure). The agent noted a few things that he knew did not work properly. This is why my client thought she needed to fix those things.
No, she doesn’t need to fix anything. I explained the home selling document is simply a disclosure. Sure, there have been times when a seller has argued with me over my listing agent AVID, demanding I change disclosures I made, and it can’t be done. Each agent makes his or her own disclosures and they stand on their own merit. It’s not a request for work. It can even be wrong. It’s just an agent’s observation.
I cannot begin to tell you how relieved my client sounded in her text message. I’m glad that I probed and discovered which of the home selling documents she misinterpreted. We Sacramento Realtors can’t take any document for granted. Sellers don’t work with these daily like we do. We need to stop and explain more. Nobody is ever offended when an agent tries to help.
Why Does an Agent Prepare an Agent Visual Inspection?
All real estate agents should prepare an a thorough agent visual inspection.
Agents who don’t prepare an agent visual inspection deserve what they get. For many real estate agents working in Sacramento today, the 1984 case of Easton v. Strassburger is nothing but a legal phrase they recall from a real estate exam and meaningless to them today. Since I had already been working for years in real estate when the California court of appeal ruled on this legendary case, the ramifications of Easton v. Strassburger struck fear in my heart and it’s never left. This landmark lawsuit changed the way I forever since have done business.
It’s odd for me to think back at that time and realize I practiced real estate for so many years before that ruling and I never inspected homes. I had team members who showed homes, but I handled the offer preparation and was responsible for all negotiation. I never personally looked at the home myself. My feeling back all those decades ago was the house had four walls, a roof and somebody would live in it, so what did I care? My job was to get our investors a good rental property. Prepare an agent visual inspection? Why?
After Easton v. Strassburger, I changed my tune. Easton bought a home on a hill in Danville from the Strassburgers. After escrow closed, the house suffered extensive damage from sliding soil and the Easton sued. The court ruled the broker had a duty to conduct a reasonable inspection and to disclose. Further, agents have a duty to disclose what they know or should have known, which could have been concluded from a routine physical inspection. There was evidence of previous slides that the Strassburgers did not disclose, which the agent should have picked up on. Ever since then, I inspect.
As Sacramento Realtors, we are not required to conduct a home inspection. But we are expected to walk the property, identify possible defects and point out areas that could become a concern. Sometimes, I shoot photos of defects I spot and include them with my agent visual inspection. If I spot a crack over a door, I note it. It could be a settling crack or it could be indicative of something more serious. I’m not a home inspector, so I wouldn’t know. Yet, I disclose.
Imagine my shock yesterday when I received a buyer’s agent visual inspection for one of my listings. The agent didn’t complete the inspection at all. The AVID was blank. Instead, the agent wrote across the face of the document verbiage to the effect that the buyer is advised to obtain a home inspection. Lazy-ass moron. I’ve encountered other difficulties in the past with this particular agent, things that left me scratching my head and wondering why this agent is not in jail. And here is yet one more piece of concrete evidence. A disaster waiting to happen. Buyers deserve so much better.
