Buyers: “What is the Seller Hiding??”
Sellers don’t HAVE to incriminate themselves — make that, their homes — when they put their house on the market.
At least in Minnesota, one of the sanctioned Seller’s Disclosure Alternatives is for the Seller to waive disclosing anything at all (the Buyer has to then agree to that).
Just like with defendants who plead the fifth, though, there can be an associated stigma — especially if the Seller has lived in the home a long time.
Buyer Skepticism = Price Discount
When that’s the case, prospective Buyers can reasonably ask themselves, “what does the Seller know about the home that they’re not telling us?”
Such natural Buyer skepticism can translate into a sizable discount from the sales price — not to mention extra scrutiny during the inspection phase of the deal.
Which is why a Seller who’s lived in the home and knows it well is usually better advised to provide Buyers with a “warts and all” Minnesota Seller’s Disclosure.
P.S.: Sellers who’ve never lived in the home, either because it’s an estate sale or the home is a foreclosure, more typically avail themselves of the Disclosure waiver.
Buyers presume such Sellers don’t know anything about the home . . . because they usually don’t.
