Minnesota Home Seller Disclosure Duties — and their Realtor’s(!)

Just like good stand-up comedians establish themes that they keep revisiting (see, Jerry Seinfeld; Chris Rock; Louis CK), a good continuing ed speaker doorrepeatedly invokes a mantra for practitioners (Minnesota Realtors like yours truly) to heed.

Yesterday’s (much repeated) mantra:  “if you crack the door open a little bit . . . you have to swing it wide open.”

Standard:  “All or Nothing”

In other words, when it comes to Seller home disclosure (at least in Minnesota), there’s no such thing as being a little bit pregnant.

Sellers either commit to disclosure — fully, updated, etc.  . . or they don’t (in which case, they’d be obliged to explicitly waive their disclosure).

What’s most important, ultimately, isn’t what choice the Seller makes.

Rather, it’s that the Buyer and Seller agree what level of disclosure they’re bargaining for — and that the Purchase Agreement accurately commemorates that.

P.S.:  Minnesota Realtors have their own, independent duty to disclose material facts, that can’t be waived.

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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