Surprise! What did the seller take with them that you expected would stay with the house?

[Anonymous]

They took the garage door opener. We noticed at the walk through that the garage door opener was missing. Their realtor picked up a generic replacement at the hardware store on the way to closing. When we got back to the house after signing, we found out that the replacement didn't work with our garage door opener. Had to buy a whole new unit the first day we owned the house. They really should have paid for it.

At our walkthrough, the sellers also couldn't locate the key to the access panel for the air conditioning. (It's a weird configuration, but you need a key to access the air handling unit.) Our realtor ended up paying a locksmith out of her commission to have it re-keyed because they refused to cough up the money or a key. They said we were being unreasonable.

When I moved with professional packers, we often had issues with them packing things that were meant to convey, like toilet paper holder rods, stove burners, silverware trays from the dishwasher, drip trays from the refrigerator, etc. I think they do it intentionally for a laugh. I bet that explains more than a few of these issues.

My husband did change all of our lightbulbs before the inspection when we sold our last house. He had just outfitted the house with all LED bulbs, which were expensive and new to the market at that time. We replaced them with standard incandescent bulbs taken from our new house, though, so that the house did have working lights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glass shelves in the bathrooms (from Restoration Hardware), the lamp post from the front yard, ALL of the paint (which was stacked in the basement every time we were in the house, including the walk-through...a huge pain because there were so many different colors in the house and we could have used the paint for touch ups...ended up having to paint the entire house due to damage when previous owners removed things from the walls).

This happened to us and I just don't understand! I'm sure they were not going to use it in their new house in Florida.

Getting rid of that paint is a pain, too. You actually have to take it to the dump, you can't just throw it in the trash. And they sure as heck couldn't take it to Florida with them, lol.

I wonder if they asked through their agent and were told to pitch it??

[Anonymous]

Curtains and screens for the Windows. But, I think they paid movers who took everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curtains and screens for the Windows. But, I think they paid movers who took everything.

They took the screens off the windows???!!! That is crazy!

[Anonymous]

I take it people complaining about the light bulbs havent switched to LED?

Some of our bulbs are $20-30 per recessed bulb, mostly the ones in kitchen with high CRI. You cant buy them at home depot.

Im switching them all out for home depot or costco bulbs when we sell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the convenient outlets in our old house were the newer USB integrated outlets. We had 3-4 per room. I knew I wanted the same convenience in the new house. We swapped them out for standard outlets.

That is cheap and mean!

It's on par with the LED lightbulbs. Sellers owe buyers light and electrical outlets. They don't owe them the latest and greatest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the convenient outlets in our old house were the newer USB integrated outlets. We had 3-4 per room. I knew I wanted the same convenience in the new house. We swapped them out for standard outlets.

That is cheap and mean!

It's on par with the LED lightbulbs. Sellers owe buyers light and electrical outlets. They don't owe them the latest and greatest.

Totally my point on the ELFA Closets. I will glad go down to Target or whatever and buy a $40 closet rod. But I'm not giving away a system that cost a grand a piece. No sir. No ma'am. They're entitled to a functional closet, not an extravagant one.

If I could dismantle my custom shower I'd take that too but I'm not that petty. Or crazy.

[Anonymous]

So with ELFA can you transfer to a new closet or is it just like wanting the new owners not to have it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So with ELFA can you transfer to a new closet or is it just like wanting the new owners not to have it.

You can install it in a new closet. You may have to buy a few pieces since the closets will probably be different sizes but you can reuse the brackets, drawers, and any accessories you might have purchased.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So with ELFA can you transfer to a new closet or is it just like wanting the new owners not to have it.

Transfer. The ELFA base (the rods that are actually physically attached the wall) are only like $300 to purchase. Though of course they're also removable. But I know people who have taken their ELFAs from house to house for a decade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, if taking what is "yours" involves using tools to dismantle/remove from the walls and take down - it is a fixture of the house that isn't "yours" anymore unless it is specifically stated that those things do not convey.

I can not even imagine showing a house with custom closet shelving in place and then removing it at the time of the sale as a nasty little surprise for the new owner.

I'm shocked that people do that actually.

The wall mounted tv includes using tools to remove. Not the tv, but the bracket that holds it that is mounted to the wall. You know, the one that is sized to fit the tv I'm taking with me.

Are you taking your physical closet with you? Then why would you take your custom shelving that was built specifically for your closet? Same logic. For the record, I think you should of course take down your wall mount, but I also do not believe you should remove closet shelving that was custom fit to only fit your closet. That exists in the home you're selling. And leaving for a new home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I take it people complaining about the light bulbs havent switched to LED?

Some of our bulbs are $20-30 per recessed bulb, mostly the ones in kitchen with high CRI. You cant buy them at home depot.

Im switching them all out for home depot or costco bulbs when we sell.

No one said anything about replacing expensive bulbs with cheap ones, this whole subject came up because one person's sellers just flat out TOOK all of the bulbs. No replacements, just nothing.

[Anonymous]

For those asking where you're supposed to put your clothes while selling the house if you take the Elfa down... hello, that's the point. Take down the Elfa and put back up whatever you're going to leave with the house (a standard rod/shelf, whatever). It shouldn't just be left empty with nothing to hang on. The new buyers don't want that any more than you do while living there.

[Anonymous]

They took the instant hot water dispenser!

It was listed in the MRIS posting as an appliance and was there during the inspection/walk through. When we moved in, it was gone and the hole in the counter-top was plugged.

The seller's agent was contacted and told us that it hadn't worked in years so as a courtesy the sellers took it out for us (which is BS). So we paid the $50 to buy another and installed it ourselves....we had enough headaches during move-in and just didn't want to fight this fight...

[Anonymous]

Sellers took a few (attractive) light fixtures and replaced them with the original builder-grade fixtures. Asked the sellers' agent about it at the walkthrough and she said the attractive fixtures had come from XX store and were still available--I think she had already noticed too and asked the sellers about it. I didn't let it go and the agent gave us the $$ to buy new fixtures (we still paid the cost of an electrician to install them).