Seller’s Responsibility Prior to Closing - Condition of Real Estate

Nobody likes to go to work the day after a holiday; however, I had a closing this morning. We did our final walk thru of the property on the 23^rd of December. I always bring my camera to these final real estate inspections – just in case.

Our Mulitple-Board Residential Real Estate Contract clearly state: “Seller agrees to leave the Real Estate in broom clean condition. All refuse and personal property that is not to be conveyed to Buyer shall be removed from the Real Estate at Seller’s expense before possession.”

I always laugh a little when explaining this paragraph to buyers. Every seller has a different idea of what “broom clean” really means. However, the part about removing all personal property seems pretty straight forward.

When we walked in 7 rooms still contained personal items– not just a few bags worth of stuff, but large pieces of heavy furniture and boxes of junk. I took about 12 photos and brought them to the closing for the seller’s lawyer to see. I had also made a call to Got Junk to find out how much it would cost to haul all that stuff away. We estimated it would take just over a half a truck, or between $300 – 400 to remove the items.

The lawyer called his client with my photos in hand and they agreed to give the buyers a credit. The seller’s lawyer even thanked me for the photos – no “he said, she said” with color photos.