Buying a home is no picnic.

  • You have to do a little research for the types of homes you might want to live in,
  • You have to qualify for the mortgage
  • You have to actually go out and visit some homes
  • You (and your Realtor) make the offer and negotiate the terms,
  • You then go through the whole home inspection process, all the loan underwriting requirements, negotiating the repair items from the home inspection
  • You finally are getting ready for settlement and you perform the “pre-settlement walk through” to make sure that the house is in “substantially the same condition” it was when you initially fell in love with it……

Then you go to settlement and sign a truckload of documents relating to the transfer of the property to you and relating to the mortgage and your promise to pay it back in monthly installments over the next 30 years.

The person selling you the house gives you the keys, the days the trash and recycling is picked up, the mailbox keys, remotes for the garage doors and anything else related to you walking through the front door and screaming, “This is my house!”

Now The Fun Really Starts

A lot of people who have owned homes know that there is ongoing maintenance and even unforeseen problems that need to be looked after.  In my own personal experience, I’ve had a water heater burst and start leaking water all over my basement on the Saturday before Easter Sunday (you should have seen that plumbing bill!).  I’ve recently replaced a heat pump and air handler that was installed when the house was built.  It was inefficient, noisy, old and costly. The new one wasn’t cheap.

There was even stuff that I didn’t expect to shell out cash for right after I moved in. But, I had bought myself a house and I knew there wasn’t a “landlord” or anyone I could shift responsibility to in order to get things fixed. It’s called the joys of home ownership

Settlement Means It’s Your Home and Your Responsibility

I know it’s a tough economy.  I know you’ve put together every dime you have in order to put together a down payment and some closing costs. You might have some extra stashed away because you wanted to paint and put down some new carpet or buy some nice furniture.

I get it.

It’s a pain in the patootie when something unexpected happens two weeks after you move in.  The home inspector (the guy you paid to check out every little thing) may have missed something. Or maybe it seemed minor at the time and you let it slide. Or maybe it was one of those things that you negotiated with the Seller to reduce the price of the house or increase the amount of the Seller Credit to the Buyer for your closing costs.

Only now, it looks like it’s going to cost money to get it fixed and you really need to get it fixed now….and not later.

It seems like some people want to go back to the person who sold them the  house and get more money to get whatever it is fixed.

Sorry. No can do. The Seller doesn’t own the house anymore. You do.

The whole point of owning a home is, well, ownership and that means that the buyer (now the new owner) takes responsibility for things in the house that need repair or maintenance. That’s everything from making sure the grass is mowed in the summer to painting to replacing the hot water heater to anything else the house needs to make it nice and comfy for you to live in.

Going back to the person who sold the house after settlement sounds nice and, gee, it sure would be nice if they picked up the tab for something you needed fixed. It isn’t going to happen, though.

It’s always tough when I get the call from a client who tells me that this, that or the other thing is wrong with the house and they didn’t realize it (remember the home inspection and the walk through) and it was that sneaky seller and yadda, yadda, yadda.  I want to love my clients and I want them to love me back.  So, it’s tough for me to tell them that it’s their house now and they have to take care of it.

But, that’s the way it is. After settlement, it’s yours.