Solve issues before the buyers show up

THERE are many agents and sellers who fully understand the "work together" principal and embrace its obvious benefits.

However, a recent email reminded me of the many instances where this still does not happen. So is this the fault of the agent or the seller?

An example is of a vendor who had lost a sale due to an adverse building inspection report, commissioned by the potential buyer.

The report highlighted areas of significant damp, enough for the buyer to get nervous and walk away.

The agent, it appears, had done nothing other than relist the house for sale after informing the sellers the sale fell through.

If you know of any detrimental structural issues with your home, you need to discuss them with your agent prior to listing.

They may have suggestions and specialists they can recommend.

Or if you know how to remedy the problems then by all means go ahead and get it done first to avoid buyers using it to negotiate reductions on the price or as an excuse to change their minds.

But whatever you do, don't just hope no one notices.

Presuming this damp was not a known issue, a good agent should have been on the case immediately and the seller should have been on the phone too asking the agent "what now?".

But sadly in this instance -- and many others -- all parties here just seemed to accept the situation.

Once a sale is agreed on, with conditions attached, you and the agent should work together to get through each stage including building inspections.

If an issue is noted, agents should forewarn buyers and sellers -- perhaps it will not worry the buyer if the issue is remedied by the seller or all involved can negotiate a reduction to cover the works.

Call in professionals to quote and ensure negotiations take place -- with the agent, vendor and buyer all involved.

The agent should not rest until the deal is over the line while the seller also cannot sit back and relax until the cheque is in their hand (or that of their bank manager).

It's possible that a surprising case of damp could still have resulted in the buyer walking away, but could that happen again?

Surely it is worth investigating the findings of the report so the next buyer does not fall out of love with your home.

So the moral of the story is that unless your home is sold under auction conditions, you need to work on getting the sale not just agreed to, but done and dusted.

And that requires team work between sellers and agents to ensure that your sale meets all the conditions of the buyer and goes through without a hitch.

Then you can crack open that bottle of bubbly.

Source: http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2012/06/16/424655_gold-coast-real-estate.html

- by Gold Coast Bulletin Property columnist and real estate guru Andrew Winter