Exclusions Can Foil the Sale

More than 20 blooming plants, including exquisite roses, bordered the backyard of the engineering professor’s house.

Though the professor was moving far away and had put his house up for sale, he vowed to take the plants along when he moved. He was also adamant about keeping the water filter, which was attached to the kitchen faucet, though it was worth a mere $40.

The professor’s stubborn refusal to let the plants and water filter go cost him dearly. Right after the property went up for sale, a young couple presented a nearly full-price offer for the place--conditional on the inclusion of the plants and water filter.

When the seller refused to negotiate, the couple withdrew their bid in disgust.

It took the professor another five months to attract a second offer on his house--and this one was $11,000 less than the first bid, recalls Bobbie Miller of Prudential California Realty in Mission Viejo, who listed the man’s home.

Miller says the lesson of the professor’s situation is clear: “Don’t let trivial things spoil the sale of your home.”

As veteran agents like Miller know, it’s not unusual for sellers to cling to items worth but a fraction of the overall market value of their homes.

“It’s really not in your interest to be petty,” says Kathy D’Orso, a broker-associate for Re/Max Beach Cities Realty in Manhattan Beach.

Here are several suggestions for home sellers:

* Follow the “out of sight, out of mind” rule.

Obviously, it’s nearly impossible for potential purchasers to covet items they’ve never seen. How would they know, for instance, that fine lighting fixtures, custom window coverings or attractive brass fireplace tools had been part of the decor before they ever entered a property for the first time?

Sellers are far better off removing items than trying to negotiate to keep them at the risk of losing a transaction altogether, says Miller, who has sold homes for 16 years.

“If you want anything reserved, pack it up and put it in the garage. Storing things away in boxes not only protects your right to keep them, it also makes your home look cleaner and clearer--so that people have fewer doubts that they could add their own personal mark there,” she says.

* Be sure that potentially disputed items are overtly excluded from the sale.

Only the most naive home buyers will imagine that they are entitled to your sofa or dining room table. But items that are attached to a wall or ceiling--or which seem to be attached--normally transfer with the house.

Therefore, a dispute over such items could have serious consequences. Are you unwilling to remove potentially disputed items before you vacate your property? Then it’s crucial that the exclusion of such items be explicitly stated in writing, to avoid the possibility of a damaging confrontation with a bidder.

When exclusions are not specifically spelled out, misunderstandings can develop easily and lead to aborted transactions, Miller cautions.

* Try to limit the number of exclusions you write into your listing.

After 22 years selling real estate in Southern California, D’Orso recalls many times that home sellers insisted on retaining such home appliances as washers and dryers, despite the expense of moving them to their next homes.

Although used appliances have limited resale value (check the classified section of your newspaper), buyers are often offended at the notion of being “cheated” out of them.

More to the point, as D’Orso says, moving into a home without working appliances is annoying to the many purchasers, who increasingly place a premium on buying a property in “move in” condition.

A used home appliance may be worth only a few hundred dollars. But the net cost of taking it with you, when factored into the final home price, could be $2,000 or more, D’Orso says.

“This is where the math of sellers can get really weird,” she says.

* Don’t attempt any last-minute property removal schemes.

Miller, the Mission Viejo agent, will never forget the day when one of her clients discovered--only after moving into a property she’d bought--that a fancy brass dining room chandelier had been spirited away at the last minute.

The buyer was so livid at the notion that the sellers would “steal” the chandelier that she seriously considered taking them to court. After all, she noted, the sellers had never indicated that the chandelier would be excluded from the sale. Moreover, they had failed to replace the fancy fixture with another one, leaving only bare electrical wires behind.

It was only after Miller agreed to bear the cost of a comparable chandelier that the buyer was dissuaded from taking the seller to court.

Not only do you risk the ill will of buyers when you attempt the unexpected removal of property at the last minute, but you also put yourself in jeopardy of legal consequences.

“There are more and more lawsuits over personal property in the sale of homes,” Miller says.

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Ellen James Martin is a syndicated columnist. She can be reached via e-mail at ellenjamesmartin@aol.com. However, she cannot answer readers’ questions individually. Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate.