Water, Bulbs & Cast Iron Tubs: Why Walk-Throughs Matter
Every buyer, per the Agreement of Sale, is entitled to two walk-throughs prior to settlement. Typically, one of these is reserved for the day before or the day of settlement, and that is the focus of this article. The primary purpose of the final walk-through is to make sure the sellers have moved out and removed all of their personal belongings, that it is broom-swept, that no changes have been made to the property, no damage has been inflicted on the house, and no fixtures or personal belongings that are supposed to remain in the home have been removed.
Real estate can be a messy business, meaning there are an unlimited number of things that can go wrong in the process of selling or buying a home. Additionally, I think there is an unwritten rule that the more things that go wrong or cause challenges during the transaction, the more likely it will present a grand finale at settlement with a bunch of garbage (figuratively and literally) to deal with to get through closing.
My advice is to never skip the final walk-through. There was a walk-through I went on many years ago, an hour before the settlement time. I arrived just as my buyer arrived. As I opened the front door, we could hear water dripping. Of all the things that can go wrong right before settlement, water is one of the worst and most damaging. It was a bi-level, and the toilet on the upper floor had been leaking into the finished lower level all night. The seller had finished cleaning the home the night before and everything was perfect when they left. Somehow the toilet began to leak overnight and created a mess by the morning when we arrived. To all of our surprise, we were still able to close on the house that afternoon. A restoration company arrived right away, the sellers filed an insurance claim, and the ball was rolling toward getting everything cleaned up, so my buyer signed on the dotted line. If we had skipped the walk-through, or done it the evening before, it could have created the potential for the water damage to be the buyer’s responsibility—and it might not have been covered by insurance.
Then there was that time I was walking through a home with my buyer in Lancaster City right before settlement, and the seller was outside digging up bulbs from the yard. My instinct was to pull out the Agreement of Sale and point out where it states that unpotted shrubbery, plantings, and trees are included in the sale. My buyer didn’t
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care about the bulbs, so we let it slide. There was the house near Leola where the seller removed all of the curtain rods and hardware, and then it became evident that the listing agent lived in the house with the seller—but that wasn’t disclosed. But I digress; that’s an article for another time.
Sometimes the issue is that the seller totally underestimated how much s**t they have and are still scrambling to get it out of the house the morning of settlement. Like my seller in Columbia who actually had to have a hauler take away two truckloads of junk on settlement day, including a cast iron tub that was on a second-floor balcony. Those things weigh a ton; I’m not sure how they did it.
I remember one Friday in June, an eternity ago, when I naively scheduled six settlements in one day. It was basically the real estate Olympics. I had a seller in the Denver area who lost her husband to cancer during the selling process. She was grieving and yet had to manage packing up their home and moving to a townhouse, closing on both the same day. The buyer's agent called me from the walk-through to say that my seller still had personal items in the house and the buyers wanted to see the home empty before settlement. I drove to the home, and the buyer agent, the seller, and I carried box after box over to the neighbor’s home while her buyers walked around the neighborhood. Mission accomplished. I had to leave for another walk-through at another one of my listings closing that day while the buyers scrutinized the foundation as though it had changed since they last saw it. I can’t remember the details, only that it seemed more like cold feet by the buyers. Somehow that was resolved, and somehow all six sales went through that day. Never again would I plan such a ridiculous day.
There is not one way to resolve issues that rear their ugly head at the final walk-through. Sometimes the buyers roll with it and deal with the change or the stuff. Sometimes a compromise is reached and outlined on the Pre-Settlement Walk-Through Form. Sometimes the sellers have to pay for a repair or pay for a hauler. Some buyers are patient; others have unrealistic expectations. Our job is to navigate the issues and be the calm voice of reason, assuming everyone wants the same goal—to close on the house. I love it when a client turns to look at me at settlement and observes that I’m not doing anything. I always point out that that’s the goal—you really don’t want me to have to do anything at settlement.
