What Information Does a Realtor have to disclose

homealone · #1 04-23-2011, 09:51 PM

When someone is dealing with a realtor or even a broker to purchase a house what kind of information about the house do they have to tell the person looking to buy the home??

I am curious about this because when my old man bought his house the realtor didn't tell him that the basement floods every time that it rains, that the roof needed to be replaced and that there were problems with the foundation of the home.

Are these things that a realtor should have told him before he bought the house??

All of these things and more have to be fixed in the house which is going to cost a bundle of money and if these problems were discussed before the signing of the papers he would have chosen another home!!

This kind of stuff really upsets me because I am the one that has to deal with everything because he works nights and isn't available during the day execpt for his days off. I guess I am just upset that I now have to make sure all this gets taken care of before the house falls in on itself and it is the last thing that I really want to do!!!

More or less I needed to let off some steam because this is seriously upsetting to me. Thanks for putting up with me about this and for any answers to my questions you might have!!!

JaredfromIndiana · #2 04-25-2011, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homealone

When someone is dealing with a realtor or even a broker to purchase a house what kind of information about the house do they have to tell the person looking to buy the home??

I am curious about this because when my old man bought his house the realtor didn't tell him that the basement floods every time that it rains, that the roof needed to be replaced and that there were problems with the foundation of the home.

Are these things that a realtor should have told him before he bought the house??

All of these things and more have to be fixed in the house which is going to cost a bundle of money and if these problems were discussed before the signing of the papers he would have chosen another home!!

This kind of stuff really upsets me because I am the one that has to deal with everything because he works nights and isn't available during the day execpt for his days off. I guess I am just upset that I now have to make sure all this gets taken care of before the house falls in on itself and it is the last thing that I really want to do!!!

More or less I needed to let off some steam because this is seriously upsetting to me. Thanks for putting up with me about this and for any answers to my questions you might have!!!

It is our duty to disclose anything we see or know about the property. I have talked MANY buyers out of buying a house because of structural damages that I can see.

Here is the catch... we DON'T know everything about the homes that we show. I am consistently working with 5-10 buyers at a time, showing anywhere from 10-20 houses a week. You expect me to know everything about every house? That just isn't possible.

If I see that a roof looks bad I am going to say something about it. If I see cracks in the foundation, same thing. I encourage every buyer to have an inspection done to help find some of the things we can't see with our own eyes.

Don't shoot the Realtor! It probably isn't his fault.

homealone · #3 04-25-2011, 09:02 PM

Thank you Jared!! I appreciate your information. I am just upset that there are so many problems with this house that he didn't know about before buying it.

I have no intention on shooting the realtor, she seems to be really nice just doesn't seem to know much about the houses (at least this one) and that is a bit annoying.

I just needed to vent a little because all of this is just seriously upsetting because as I mentioned before I now have to deal with all of this because he can't.

realestatehound · #4 04-28-2011, 02:21 AM

In Ky. sellers that list with a realtor are required to fill out a sellers disclosure. They are suppose to disclose everything they know about the house. Then as Realtors it is our duty to disclose everything we see that is wrong with the home. The problem their is that most Realtors don't know a seal plate from a floor joist much less if their is a problem with any of it. I actually had a sellers disclosure get a new septic tank where the seller of the home lied about it being in good shape when in fact it had been bad for 4 years. A lot of Realtors are only worried about getting a check and not the buyers. I've been in the real estate and auction profession for 35 years and I have never seen this business in the shape that it is in now. We need to get in the real world, when you can take 96 class room hours of real estate school and pass a test then sell real estate something is wrong. What do the expect from these new agents. It not there fault they just don't know anything about homes.

propiper · #5 04-28-2011, 04:08 PM

I have had Realtors here in Virginia tell me if sellers have what they assume is 'ghosts" or activity or something like that they have to tell potential buyers about that as well.

Is that so?

homealone · #6 04-28-2011, 04:53 PM

Why is it so simple to get a real estate license?? It would make much more sense if real estate agents actually knew something about the homes they are supposed to sell.

realestatehound · #7 05-03-2011, 03:15 AM

I used to be an instructor in the largest real estate school in Ky. and I can assure you that they teach nothing about homes or how to sell them, but the state tells them what they have to teach. It is crazy but that's why so many realtors don't know what they are doing. We were told that we had to teach them how to pass a test not sell real estate. I always thought that they should learn how to protect the buyers and sellers with the single largest purchase of their lives. But I guess the government don't see things my way.