Sunday, March 22, 2009

Cleveland Real Estate Seller Disclosure - What is the Seller Disclosure?

Quite simply, Cleveland real estate disclosure makes it mandatory for the seller of a property to tell the buyer about any defects in the home itself. In other words, if there are problems that were not found by a home inspection team, the seller must make these clear up front to the buyer, as they could adversely affect the value of the home.

Seller disclosure is great as there are no surprises when purchasing a Cleveland property, and a number of sellers also like this policy because it prevents them from lawsuits from buyers being unsatisfied when they see defects in the home.

The history of seller disclosure goes back about 30 years, when California put into law the questions that a Cleveland real estate seller must answer. All parties must also sign off that the property has been inspected and that there are no defects within it.

About 15 years ago, Coldwell banker, one of the largest real estate associations, made it a policy that sellers listing their property must fill out disclosure forms, regardless of state requirements.

The National Association of Realtors is pushing hard to have seller disclosure put into law in every state, and this is probably a very intelligent practice, as there are large number of lawsuits that result from a lack of communication between a buyer and seller with regards to the real condition of the property.

Of course, some people claim that the National Association of Realtors is simply pushing the burden onto the sellers as opposed to the brokers, so that they do not have to take responsibility for any defects in the Cleveland house.

It is a good idea to ask questions about the seller disclosure process and whether the state requires that this disclosure be in writing. If a seller disclosure is present, you should always inspected in detail and have your purchasing broker look it over in order to avoid purchasing a property with severe damage.

Of course, such a disclosure is largely unimportant compared to a Cleveland home inspection, so this process should not negate the need for such an inspection. A seller disclosure is more of a teaser in order to tell you the general condition of the property according to the person was selling it, so you can narrow down your search for the property that you're hoping to buy.

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