What to Know About St. Louis Seller Disclosure
As the seller, it is your legal obligation to tell the buyer everything you know about the home, property and neighborhood they’re buying into via the St. Louis seller disclosure. You may, however, feel reluctant to do so. After all, you don’t want to chase a buyer away even after a deal has been made. But not disclosing everything could land you in legal trouble later on, so it’s best to disclose as much as possible.
Here’s what to know about St. Louis seller disclosure.
Don’t hesitate, disclose
As a rule of thumb, St. Louis sellers need to disclose any facts they know about any physical aspects of the property such as potentially dangerous conditions or materials, any lawsuits or possible problems that could harm the value of the property and all other factors that may change a buyer’s decision to buy.
Of course, you can’t know all the things that go into affecting your particular buyer’s decision-making process. If your windows leak when it storms but not when it lightly rains, do you disclose it? If the basement gets a little water during heavier showers, should you tell the owner? If you can deal with these problems, then surely your buyer can live with these problems too, right?
Not at all. If you want to avoid a lawsuit in the near future, then you need to disclose all of these little things about your home. A good rule of thumb is that if you think of it, disclose it. Short disclosure lists can actually make buyers more nervous because they’re thinking that something must have been left out.
Having a longer list doesn’t always mean that buyers will automatically back out of a deal or ask for a major price reduction. For many St. Louis buyers, this list can be a great indicator of what they’re getting into, and they’ll feel more comfortable working with an honest seller.
Repairs and disclosures
You also need to document any repairs and renovations that were done to your home. Usually, you can provide an invoice for proof of work.
Failure to do this can have major consequences. For example, if your work required a permit and no one ever filed the permit, your buyer will find out when they do their due diligence on your property. If they can’t find a permit, they may ask for work to be redone so that it is up to code, which will cost you even more money.
You could not tell your buyer about these repairs and renovations at all, but that might come back to haunt you. If your buyer later discovers these shoddy repairs and renovations, then he or she may come back and sue you. You will then have to pay court costs and well as any additional money to have the work done right.
Provide inspection reports
Your buyers will probably want a home inspection of their own, but you can provide all the ones that have been done on the St. Louis home. This is a great way to give your buyer a history of your home. They’ll see problems that came up and be able to match them with contractor invoices to see that the work was done to fix them.
Inspection reports can also cover you for most problems in your home. So long as the report mentions them, then you can say that the seller was informed. The seller needs to do his or her part and read these reports too.
When it comes to a St. Louis seller disclosure, more is best.