With Terry Story, 27-year veteran Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker in Boca Raton, FL
A house goes on the market and everyone is on his best behavior, putting his shiniest foot forward. The seller cordially opens up the home to potential buyers who are generally respectful and wanting to make a good impression, and everyone is smiling. But after the sale, that relationship between buyer and seller sometimes takes a radical shift.
Terry says you have to look at both sides. From the buyer’s point of view, after the inspection process has taken place, they’re eager to make plans, maybe come back in and measure windows or flooring. The sellers, however, want to lock the door and get back to their lives. It could be risky and even jeopardize the sale if the buyer does come back in and realize from perhaps their contractor that what they had imagined isn’t possible to accomplish.
Nevertheless, Terry advises her clients to go through the inspection process with a contractor and wait until the walkthrough before going back in. It’s a good idea to have your realtor or contractor at the walkthrough as well, especially if the house has been vacant and vulnerable to vandalism.
Now with the beginning of the school year, Terry notes a bit of a lull in real estate activity here in the South Florida area. Most home seekers have made their new home decisions, but in this business, Terry says, there’s always another peak season just around the corner.
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Steve Pomeranz: It's time for Real Estate Roundup. This is the time every single week we get together with noted real estate agent Terry Story. Terry is a 27-year veteran with Coldwell Banker located in Boca Raton, Florida. Welcome back to the show, Terry.
Terry Story: Thanks for having me, Steve.
Steve Pomeranz: Let me ask you this question. Can and should buyers be entitled to come visit the house that they're bidding on after the inspection period and before their walkthrough? Because that contains all kinds of problems.
Terry Story: It does, Steve, and it depends on how you're looking at it. Take the view of the buyer and you can take the view of the seller. The buyers like to go back to the house multiple times. After they've done their inspection, they like to place furniture, take new measurements. From a seller's perspective, they've sold their home, they'd like to go on with their life. They don't want to have to necessarily keep showing it, keeping it clean and tidy. There's risk involved when you do this, Steve. The more, especially if the buyer is planning on renovations, and what we find is the buyer would like to come back and bring this contractor, then that contractor. This can become a problem and a deal killer, actually. A buyer may find out, "Oh, I can't really do what I thought I could do by taking down this wall," or what have you.
Steve Pomeranz: It's risk to the seller because the buyer may be changing their mind or something?
Terry Story: That's correct.
Steve Pomeranz: For whatever reason.
Terry Story: That's correct. Now you have some circumstances, lately, in this type of market that we're in, you'll have people buying homes that are from out of state. They're familiar with the neighborhood. They visited the neighborhood. They know what the homes are like, yet they left without being able to buy a home because there is nothing available that they liked when they were in town. What we find, Steve, is people will go online, look at houses in that particular neighborhood. They find one that they like. They'll send their agent over there to preview the home for them, and then they're making offers on the house. I've had this happen multiple times this...