Buying the Wrong House

I just finished teaching a community education class at Santa Fe College titled “What Home Owners Need to Know”. The course covered many aspects of property boundaries, licensure of service people and the basics of how your house works. I handed out a maintenance check list of what home owners need to do to keep their home in shape. One of those attending thought the class needed to be longer, four hours didn’t seem long enough and there was so much more information she was looking for. Another attendant looked at me with, “deer in the headlights look”, and I asked; too much or not enough information? Her comment; “I think I bought the wrong house”.

Her story began with an interview to the university, she fell in love with our community and to her surprise, she was accepted for the position. She loved the countryside and found a two acre parcel with the perfect house. She dreamed of herself riding her lawn mower, planting flowers and enjoying the nature of the country. What she didn’t envision was the maintenance and upkeep of the home and my course had just opened up her eyes. The dream she envisioned had just turned into a nightmare for her. What she had bought for herself was a full time job along with her full time job.

As Realtors, our job is to facilitate the transaction between the buyer and seller but; do we have a responsibility to our customers to educate them on the property they are buying? Several comments, from those attending the class thought they should have had more information before they made their purchase. They had hired home inspectors and yet they didn’t know what they were buying; what is our responsibility, as real estate professionals, to inform the buying public of what the potential maintenance cost are? Are we doing a disservice to the buying public by allowing them to buy what they think they want?

I realize most real estate agents do not have the experience I have with home building, maintenance and repair. Many buyers think they know exactly what they want and would be turned off by any questioning from an agent. In the long run, real estate agents will be blamed for the buying decisions of their customers, home inspectors will be blamed for not informing buyers of every maintenance aspect or faults with the property. What is the answer? How best can we facilitate our customers on the long term maintenance cost of the property, similar to the energy cost of appliances? I don’t believe we need a regulation requiring a form showing future maintenance cost but the agents who will inform the buying public of future maintenance costs, will create a strong referral base as an honest agent.