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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Digging up landscaping is crazy. I don't care if the shrubs are imported and the perfect height. Landscaping is part of the land.

Unless the shrubs were sentimental or a memorial of sort. But I would expect the seller to be up front about that.

Bon Jovi paid to have a full grown tree moved from his mother in law’s house to his property when she sold her home. It was truly a sign to see.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:People sell or give away their wood piles on nextdoor all the time before moving.

Which I find really odd, since the house has a fireplace and the new owners may need to wood and assume it conveys if it's still the yard during showings. Can see getting rid of it if you want to clean up your yard before the house goes on the market, but after? What's the point?

I bet they get rid of it because they don't want the buyer to complain that they left it. Lots of things are still there during showings that don't convey.

I am in the process of buying right now and I hope our seller removes the wood. I don’t like wood piles, I’m afraid of pests. Rats, mice...
I’ll be bummed if they leave the wood.

Don't forget snakes.

But, if you're in the area, people will come and take seasoned wood off your hands.

Speaking of snakes...these sellers LEFT snakes

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/this-maryland-family-says-their-dream-home-is-infested-with-snakes-they-want-their-money-back/2015/06/03/1f8cd37c-0a09-11e5-9e39-0db921c47b93_story.html?utm_term=.952ae12e7f6b

[Anonymous]

The previous owner took every single light bulb and the hose/tools for the central vac. Bizarre.

[Anonymous]

My seller took his old garbage cans with him even though he knew I was moving from out of state. What he needed it for who knows. Am I supposed to move my old garage can house to house (which I did not)

[Anonymous]

Ceiling fans, door knobs, light fixtures. They left us old garden fertilizer, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My seller took code for Fire/Theft alarm with home. He refused at closing to give it to me. Divorce did not want to sell.

A few weeks after buying my wife sets off smoke alarm. Turns out guy has hidden speakers in attic pointed out and super loud fire alarm going. All neighbors outside. Then multiple Fire trucks and ambulances show up.

Son of Bitch had wires in attic directly wired to telephone pole that called 911 and then fire dept again and again.

So the cops are threatening to arrest me if I don't stop calling 911. I kill power it keeps going son of bitch has a hidden battery back up. Then find alarm box and cut it and find out it is a dummy box. Finally cop has buddy whose a locksmith and find Real box to cut then we found hidden battery pack. Almost one hours of sirens.

Good times

That sounds like a lawsuit to me. He intentionally sabotaged the homebuyers even though they have nothing to do with his divorce. He's probably going to land in jail eventually given he's clearly a sociopath.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My seller took his old garbage cans with him even though he knew I was moving from out of state. What he needed it for who knows. Am I supposed to move my old garage can house to house (which I did not)

People who move locally or nearby will take their garbage cans. It happens.

What are you supposed to do? Go to Home Depot or Lowe's and buy a new one. When you move into a house, you'll typically spend a lot of small trips or at least one big trip to home improvement store for all sorts of odds and ends that you'll need.

[Anonymous]

Mine is a flip...something I left but was ordered to take.

When I sold my house, I picked one storage closet and I carefully labelled and left a lot of odds and ends. The paint cans for all of the paint used in the house, so that someone could touch up or repaint areas that needed resurfacing. I know that many people will change colors, but sometimes it's not in the cards to do it right away and you might want to touch up an area until you get around to repainting. There were a few areas that had some wallpaper. I left the remainder of the wallpaper for the same reason. I left unused hardware for things installed in the house, that could be used for simple basic repairs if needed. I left some carpet remnants for the new carpeting that had been installed after we moved out. Etc.

The buyers came in and the wife was LIVID. She called me actually angry and told me I had left a closetful of junk in the house and that I needed to come over that day to remove the junk. I explained what this was, things to repair and touch up things in the house until they were replaced. She told me that she didn't want any of that trash and that I did not do a good job cleaning and that she was going to try and charge me a cleaning fee (we had already closed, so this was not going to happen).

I finally figured the best thing to do was just to appease her. I took a big box, went to the house (we had only moved 2 miles away) and I tossed everything that I had carefully labelled and stored in the box and put it out to the curb. I sent a text to the husband to let him know that I had done as his wife instructed. I went by there the next day and noticed that the box was gone (but trash pickup was still 2 days away). I assume that the husband realized that he was going to need this stuff and found someplace for the stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine is a flip...something I left but was ordered to take.

When I sold my house, I picked one storage closet and I carefully labelled and left a lot of odds and ends. The paint cans for all of the paint used in the house, so that someone could touch up or repaint areas that needed resurfacing. I know that many people will change colors, but sometimes it's not in the cards to do it right away and you might want to touch up an area until you get around to repainting. There were a few areas that had some wallpaper. I left the remainder of the wallpaper for the same reason. I left unused hardware for things installed in the house, that could be used for simple basic repairs if needed. I left some carpet remnants for the new carpeting that had been installed after we moved out. Etc.

The buyers came in and the wife was LIVID. She called me actually angry and told me I had left a closetful of junk in the house and that I needed to come over that day to remove the junk. I explained what this was, things to repair and touch up things in the house until they were replaced. She told me that she didn't want any of that trash and that I did not do a good job cleaning and that she was going to try and charge me a cleaning fee (we had already closed, so this was not going to happen).

I finally figured the best thing to do was just to appease her. I took a big box, went to the house (we had only moved 2 miles away) and I tossed everything that I had carefully labelled and stored in the box and put it out to the curb. I sent a text to the husband to let him know that I had done as his wife instructed. I went by there the next day and noticed that the box was gone (but trash pickup was still 2 days away). I assume that the husband realized that he was going to need this stuff and found someplace for the stuff.

You can assume that they're not going to put paint out with the regular trash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:blinds and curtains for every window in the house. They also took the silverware basket from the dishwasher, all of the fire alarms (they were there during our inspection) and all of the light bulbs.

We took all of our light bulbs because they were smart bulbs. We replaced them with regular bulbs. It was a pain the ass but we couldn't leave the people with no light.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The bathroom mirror

I had a buyer specify that we must leave the half bathroom mirror which I thought was hell of strange that they would assume I would take it with me. I guess they weren’t so strange after all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't fathom taking light bulbs. My guess is they use them again in their new home and the bulbs burn out after a month or so... what a PITA to deal with. Same with blinds- it prob. costs more to have them retrofitted than they are worth. They probably end up getting tossed. And seriously- toilet paper? Wowza.

We took the window treatments the last time we moved. My employer hired a (not very) professional moving company to pack up our stuff and move it. I didn’t realize how closely I needed to supervise this process, and I just left it to them. When we started unpacking, I realized that there were several things we took that I hadn’t intended to bring with me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My seller took his old garbage cans with him even though he knew I was moving from out of state. What he needed it for who knows. Am I supposed to move my old garage can house to house (which I did not)

Where my mom lives, the garbage companies that collect trash own the cans. They pick them up when you cancel your service when you move out.

[Anonymous]

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I paid $1,000 for my ELFA closet systems...so yes I'm taking those bitches with me. Just pointing that out.

Take them down before you show the house then. I know how ELFA is mounted (the top rack drilled into the wall, the rest hanging on those racks), so it's not totally unreasonable to take it, but you shouldn't show the house with it in place.

If it's anchored to the wall, it's a fixture which conveys unless explicitly excluded in the listing. If you want to keep it, remove it before showing the house or include language in the listing stating that it does not convey. Otherwise, you may end up having to fork over cash at closing to get the buyer to sign.

The way ELFA works, the top bar is anchored to the wall but everything else hangs off of that and can be taken down without any tools - as easy as taking a coat hanger off of a rack. It's a gray area, but anyone who saw it when showing wouldn't necessarily know it wasn't anchored to the wall. So that's why I said take it down before showing - you're asking for problems if you leave it up when showing.

Most people have their actual clothes in their closet during showings. I don't have elfa but I wouldn't want it to convey either. My parents spent like 7k on their elfa. You can adjust it to fit any closet.

The point is that you are misleading the buyer if you are not being clear that the $7,000 worth of closet fixtures doesn't convey. They would be making a $7,000 lower offer if they knew.Those systems are custom fit and screwed to the wall. They have a reasonable expectation that they'll stay. Do you take the old style wooden curtain rods, too? I guess you could cut a long Elfa shelf to fit a smaller closet, but it would take some engineering and buying of new materials to make a small closet set fit a bigger one. I'd rather just start over and get pieces that actually fit my new closets.

"I spent a lot of money on it" doesn't determine whether something is a fixture or not.

I have a 15k closet system. It would stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:blinds and curtains for every window in the house. They also took the silverware basket from the dishwasher, all of the fire alarms (they were there during our inspection) and all of the light bulbs.

We took all of our light bulbs because they were smart bulbs. We replaced them with regular bulbs. It was a pain the ass but we couldn't leave the people with no light.

We did this too.