Ask Our Broker With Peter G. Miller
By Peter G. Miller
CTW Features
Question: We’re thinking of selling our home in a few months and want to know how we are supposed to treat appliances. Do they stay with the house? Can we take them with us? What’s the appropriate choice?
Answer: We live in a country with a lot of regionalisms. We don’t all do things the same and when it comes to real estate, what to do with the appliances is a matter of local preferences and marketplace realities.
To find out how people handle the appliance issue in your area, go to a few open houses and see whether appliances are included in the sale or if they’re an option. The usual choices include:
1. All appliances stay with the property.
2. None of the appliances stay with the property.
3. Some of the appliances stay with the property and some go. For example, it might be that the kitchen appliances remain, while the seller takes the washer and dryer. Such neat and tidy divisions may not be realistic in your local marketplace.
When you offer a property for sale, the listing broker will have a list of the things that do and don’t come with the property. To be competitive in the local market, you will want to follow the local pattern. In effect, whatever other sellers do is pretty much what you will have to do also.
However, all sales are unique and individual. You may elect to offer your property in any way that you prefer. The catch is you also want to market your property in a way that will achieve a quick sale at the highest price and the best terms.
Let’s say you offer the home for sale, but you really want to take the washer and dryer. Do you give up the offer because it is not precisely what you wanted or do you worry that if this offer falls through, it may be difficult to get a replacement? What happens if the next offer is for a lower price and that the second buyer also wants the washer and dryer?
A related issue is this: does a kitchen microwave stay with the property or does it go? The usual answers are that if the microwave is built-in and attached to a wall, it’s a “fixture” and stays with the property.
For details and specifics, visit local open houses and ask brokers how they usually handle appliances in your market.
© CTW Features
Peter G. Miller is author of “The Common-Sense Mortgage,” (Kindle 2016). Have a question? Please write to [email protected].