Indiana Homes for Sale

No, no and no! There are lots of Indiana homes for sale and sellers breathe a sigh of relief when their home is sold...no more doing a mad cleaning dash through the home with two hours notice...no more throwing the kids in the car and driving around the block for an hour...no more fear of cooking salmon for dinner and having a "stinky fish house." Most sellers feel the weight of the world when the contract is signed and the sold sign has gone up! And it is a really great thing to gain back some normalcy...but be ware! The next step of negotiation is the inspection ( a future blog!) and the home still has to have an acceptable appraisal. Some sellers get a little lax and feel like they can let things go...not a smart choice! Let me share a story from a recent transaction.

I looked at lots of Indiana real estate with a family relocating to central Indiana. We found a really nice home and were soon under contract. There were hundreds of homes for sale in Indianapolis and chose one that suited the needs of their large family. The home was large, and clean and felt "move in." This was important to them as they have 4 children under the age of 6 and one more on the way. Well, inspection day rolled around and my buyers and the inspector got there before me. I received a frantic call from "Mrs. Buyer" telling me there was "poop, urine and vomit everywhere." I told her I was on my way and called the list agent to ask what on earth was going on with the seller. I repeated what Mrs. Buyer told me and he asked "human or animal?" Great question! I was so shocked, I hadn't even asked... Long story short (and without all the stinky details) the dog had been sick everywhere, and nervous, and dishes had not been done in more than a week, and there was food waste everywhere...the seller just let the house go because it was sold...not smart! Even the inspector was shocked and he sees a lot of amazing things! My buyers were distraught and ready to walk...they were disgusted and thought about not buying the home because of the condition...but could they? Could they get out of the contract based on condition? You bet! In the Indiana Purchase Agreement there is a line that says "Sellers shall maintain the property in it's present condition until delivered to the buyer." (Lines 87, 88). Believe me, it didn't look like that when we wrote the offer! That means this seller was in breach of contract as the condition had radically changed. Outside of the shocking condition, mechanically the home was sound...one minor dryer vent fix that probably was a $25 fix. But, because of the disgusting (an unsafe) condition, we negotiated a professional cleaning and black lighting/carpet cleaning upon closing. It ended up costing the seller about $1500.00 instead of just fixing the dryer vent. The list agent did a great job working through the seller side of the issue and together we saved the deal...but it was painful! Painful for the seller because $1500.00 was a lot of money to resolve their mistake to buyer satisfaction and painful for the buyer because of the way the home was treated while under contract! They are meticulous homeowners and genuinely feared for the health of their baby crawling around on the floors.

So, if you've sold your home...congratulations! But don't forget to continue to care for it they way you'd want it cared for if YOU were the new buyer!