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What Sellers Should Know About the Disclosure

What you need and don’t need to disclose about your home as a seller.
 
What do you have to disclose to potential buyers as a seller? A lot of sellers ask me this question, so I want to answer it briefly today. This may sound like legal advice, so I want to make sure you know that I am not an attorney. However, I have a firm grasp of the basics of the disclosures.
 
The first point is to always tell the truth. If you know there’s a problem with the roof and lie about it, that is a big issue.
 
The second point is that the disclosure form talks about characteristics you have actual knowledge of as a seller. If you don’t know whether there’s a leak in the roof or not, then you say that there’s no leak in the roof on the form. You need to know about a problem to disclose it.
 
The next thing to remember is that you don’t have to disclose an old issue that you've fixed. Fixing is a vague term, but it essentially means that the problem is no longer present and has been repaired in a workman-like fashion. You don’t have to hire a professional; you just have to make sure it’s no longer a problem.
 

"Always Tell the Truth"

The final point is to remember the term “material facts.” Think back to kindergarten for what this term means. If you were buying this house, is there anything you’d like to know about it? Is there anything substantially wrong with it? Many sellers ask if a house being haunted counts as a material fact. I would call that more of an immaterial fact, so that does not need to be disclosed.
 
If you have any more questions about seller disclosures or real estate in general, feel free to call or email me. I would love to help.

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