The Difference Between a House and a Home

The difference between a house and a home is you.  The memories, the pictures, the furniture, even the paint color combine to create a unique blend that reflects your own personality and style.  Improvements and accessories personalize, improve and/or allow for added functionality that a house may not have had before.  Consider them enhancements when it is time to sell an Austin home because they add appeal whether monetary or simply enhance the functionality of a room.

A buyer is purchasing the seller’s home.  It comes as no surprise that some of those very items that made it a home, lead to some confusion regarding ownership during a sale.  So what items convey with the property and what items leave when selling a home?  While there are often many assumptions made by the seller on what items should be leaving, the opposite thought process is often made by the buyer.  When I have a listing appointment, I review the sellers’ expectations with specific improvements and accessories because many of the items are detailed in the sales contract.

Austin Homes for Sale

When buying an Austin home, improvements generally affixed to the dwelling or property are considered permanently installed and built-in so they convey with the sale as real property.  They include items like: shrubbery, plumbing, light fixtures, wall-to-wall carpeting, garage door openers, shutters, mounts and brackets for televisions and speakers.  Accessories include items like stoves, curtains and rods, blinds, draperies, artificial fireplace logs, above ground pools and pool equipment.

Sometimes there are items sellers want to take typically because they have some sort of personal attachment to them.  The hanging pot rack was a wedding gift, there are bookcases built by Dad in the living room or maybe they just really like the curtains.  If it is yours and you want it, the best thing to do is to remove the item before listing.  Removing the pot rack is simple enough to do and avoids discussions or assumptions later on.

If there is something that is going to stay visible when the house is on the market, that a buyer would expect is staying, the best thing to do is to post of little sign on it, so potential buyers know up front that the item is not conveying.  Later on when an offer arrives any improvements and accessories that will be retained by the seller should be written into the contract, making it crystal clear to both parties.

Remember, buyers are often not seeing their future home when looking at houses, they are seeing the seller’s.  Setting the expectation of what is conveying with the sale of a property helps to ensure a smooth sale on the day of closing and beyond.