Is “As Is” All There Is?
So I was watching HGTV over the weekend. How many people are lucky enough to watch TV shows about their job? Well, maybe not everyone would consider that a good thing but I love what I do and am always looking for a chance to learn something new and see how other people do it. There are shows involving medicine, the legal system, cooking and the jobs surrounding them. And sure there may be shows involving architects and about taxi drivers but for the most part shows revolve around the characters and their daily lives and relationships but not so much what they do.
Every day I can sit down and watch numerous shows where people are doing my exact job…working with buyers, helping them find houses and coordinating and guiding them through the process of buying a home, very often their first home. And some of them do their job amazingly well and make me proud to be a real estate agent. And then there are those that do something that I consider shameful that put us all in a bad light.
In this particular episode, a couple purchased a house and they experienced some water damage from the third floor down to the basement after they moved in. Unbeknownst to them there was a leak in a pipe that started when they ran water in the upstairs bathroom and it continued overnight and into the next day before it was discovered. The husband commented that they didn’t have a home inspection because his wife decided against it, implying the problem would have been discovered then. She then corrected him and said that their “realtor” said they shouldn’t have one, that the house was being sold “as is”.
That is the case with many properties these days and it can mean different things depending on who is saying it. An owner may not want to make any needed repairs that may be discovered or may not have the money in the case of a short sale. For a bank owned property the bank usually makes no representations about the condition of a property. An owner is required to disclose any known defects when they list their home and the house should be priced according to that information being disclosed. But what it doesn’t mean is that the buyer is not allowed to have a home inspection. And shame on that “realtor” for not protecting their client and who knows if it was their own buyer agent or the one representing the seller.
If you want to buy a house without a home inspection and are financially and emotionally willing and able to take on the unknown, go right ahead. But if you want to know what you are getting into when you are looking at spending hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next 30 years you are entitled to that option and should exercise that right. Sure, the seller may not be willing to renegotiate price based on the result of the home inspection. But you really, really, really should (I can’t emphasize that strongly enough) spend the few hundred dollars for a home inspection to know what you are getting into. That way you can determine if you want to go through with the purchase of the house.
If the inspection reveals an issue that you are not willing to undertake responsibility for, then you can decide against going through with the purchase. You are not asking the seller to fix anything nor are you asking them for a reduction in price. But you shouldn’t be prevented from having the inspection in the first place. If the seller insists on that, no inspection allowed, chances are they have something they are trying to hide that they don’t want you to know about. You’d better think extra long and extra hard about entering into any sort of agreement with a seller like that who is being represented by an agent like that. Know your rights and protect yourself by working with an agent who is truly looking out for your best interest, whose duty it is to be responsible to you.
Beth is a practicing Realtor and Interactive Marketing Manager at Barrett & Company Real Estate in Concord, Massachusetts. She spends her days coaching home buyers and sellers through the intricacies of buying and selling property and training her fellow agents on the importance of and benefits to an online presence, most recently on Google+! Read more of her work on the Barrett Massachusetts real estate blog.
I also love to watch the shows about the real estate industry and get entertainment from it. Why is it that my daily life selling real estate in Metrowest Boston is not so entertaining?
I agree with your “as is” description and the awful advice from the Realtor.
One common trait of buyers, though, is that when buying short sale and foreclosures they seem to not understand “as is” means that you can TRY to negotiate but you really should not expect it to be successful. The “seller” is telling you they won’t upfront, so where is the confusion?
Today a buyer wanted a few hundred $ for removing a few items left behind in the home, for a short sale. They get a home for 20% under market value and want to hold up a deal for $200? Doesnt that sound like entertainment?
Thanks for your comment, Ed! That was definitely a thought while I was writing that as is doesn’t mean you can’t ask. I have seen it go both ways where a buyer asks for something post-inspection and sometimes the seller says “yes” and sometimes they say “no”. I always counsel my buyer clients to consider the dollar amount in the big scheme of things unless we are talking about a serious safety issue.