Adding a (Big) Margin of Error for Hassle, Unknowns

The biggest discount facing home Sellers is for home repairs they’re passing along to the Buyer (euphemistically known as “deferred maintenance”).

That’s true whether the repairs are required pursuant to a local point-of-sale inspection — mandatory in 10 enginemunicipalities in the Twin Cities — or are simply things the next owner needs to do to live in the home.

Especially for electrical and plumbing work, where there may be multiple unknowns, the discount can be as much as 3x – 4x the cost of the actual repair(s).

Half-Finished

So, what’s the second biggest discount?

Leaving a half-finished project for the next owner.

Not only are such projects unsightly, diminishing the home’s appeal, but often times whomever “inherits” the project has to undo any work that’s shoddy or isn’t code-compliant.

That is, once they’ve unraveled everything . . .

P.S.:  Think of it as the difference between having a mechanic fix a car engine from the get-go vs. having them fix it once the owner’s attempted to do the repair but screwed it up.

About the author

Ross Kaplan has 19+ years experience selling real estate all over the Twin Cities. He is also a 12-time consecutive "Super Real Estate Agent," as determined by Mpls. - St. Paul Magazine and Twin Cities Business Magazine. Prior to becoming a Realtor, Ross was an attorney (corporate law), CPA, and entrepreneur. He holds an economics degree from Stanford.

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