Is the Home You've Listed Ready to Close?....Unknown Open Permits can delay the process.

I’ve been selling Real Estate for over 17 yrs. Most of my clients are from listings. I’m not saying that I don't work with buyers.... but the majority of inquiries I get are to list homes for sale. It’s something I’ve become pretty good at but I don’t know everything and I’m always learning new things.

When I take a listing…I have a set of questions that I will ask the homeowner. I need to find out as much as I can so in the end…there hopefully won’t be any surprises. Most homeowners are willing to tell you everything you need to know. Some prefer to keep certain personal things to them selves. I’m not looking to pry into their personal business unless it will materially affect the sale of their home.

Most of the questions that I ask them are general questions…for example…”When are you looking to move?” or “How much you owe on their mortgage. “ "If you put your home on the market…do you have a place to go?”

These are just a few of the questions that I might ask them. Over the last few year….I’ve added to my list and one of the most important questions I will ask them if it applies is “Are you aware of any open permits?" Typically the owner will already see this question as it is usually built into the sellers Real Property Disclosure. The problem is that sometimes people are too busy and distracted with other things. So when they fill out these disclosures…they don’t always pay close attention to that question. Also…sellers in my area are not obligated to fill them out any longer. It’s usually because they’ve inherited the property from a family member who might be deceased and they just decline to fill them out or sign them.

Here is when it makes my job a little harder….now I must make sure that before we close….there are no permits that are still open that might hold up a closing. I usually rely on the home owner to know whether or not they have any but after learning the hard way…I’ve decided that now I need to do a little more research just to make sure we are clear to close.

I’m briefly going to tell you about one that became a pretty big issue. I listed a home for someone who inherited a home that was previously owned by their father and also there was a live in girlfriend. After the father died….the girlfriend rented the home out for a few years. She had an arrangement to split all income with the deceased man’s son. After a few years …their agreement was to have her move on with her life and the son take over the property which included the tenant. "Sounds like a good deal right?” Well it was for a while….until the tenant stopped paying their rent. It was too difficult for the son to keep up with it as he was living in another state had not been to the property in many …many years and had no knowledge about the open permits. Eventually he was able to get the tenant out and we put the home on the market and within 60 days we were able to get a contract on the home. About 2-3 weeks before we were scheduled to close…I received a call from the title agent telling me that there were 3 open permits that were from 2005! HOLY MOLY! The agent told me that until these permits were closed and resolved…we couldn’t close.

Honestly…I was a bit nervous because the home was in a different county than where I did most of my business. The first thing I needed to do was look at the docket to see what the permits were for and then I had to call the building department to see how to resolve them…and quickly. The other problem was the we were approaching a major holiday and I knew if I did not act fast….we would never close on time. I drove an hour and a half out of my way and managed to meet in person with the head inspector of the building department. He was very helpful and explained what I needed to do to expedite this.

I had to drive about an hour out of my way down to the building department so I could pay for each permit to be reopened and then closed. My client needed to mail money to me first to pay for the permits and I had to fill out all the paperwork for him. I then had to meet 3 different inspectors at the property on 3 different days and basically sit in front until they showed up. The biggest problem that held everything up was that one of the items that were repaired had been inspected 3 times and all the times it failed. But There wasn’t any evidence as to why and I could not find out because the contractor was no longer in business!...YIKES!

Eventually I was able to get a new licensed contractor out there and had the item re-inspected and we finally closed. I did have to have the title agent hold money in escrow to only be released after we had verification in writing that the matter was resolved.

We closed and about a week later…the escrow was released to the seller.

So next time you list a property for sale….take a little more time to research it and make sure that there aren’t any open permits or it will surely hold up the sale of the property.

For the superior service that you deserve!

For more information ....Please contact Neal Bloom-Realtor® /Keller Williams Properties

1625 N. Commerce Parkway,Suite 105

Weston FL 33326

(954)608-5556

Neal Bloom tells it Like it is in Real Estate-copyright © 2011-All rights reserved