The sellers disclosure form used in St. Paul is nine letter size pages long. Various questions are asked ranging from when the seller purchased the home to details about various mechanicals. Filling out all nine pages is a tedious task. I know because I did one just a couple years ago.
Answering truthfully is normal for me, but even more so since I am a real estate agent. If something was not disclosed it reflected not only on my personal integrity but my professionalism as well. Consequently my answers were quite detailed. My feeling as a seller was the more I disclosed, the better. I didn't want an unhappy buyer. Like other sellers, I loved my house and I wanted the new buyer to feel the same way.
It was at the point of the sellers disclosure when my husband suggested he fire me as his real estate agent and hire someone else! If I wasn't the listing agent couldn't I be just a tad bit less detailed? The resounding response to his query was that I could not be less detailed. Whether I was the listing agent or not was irrelevant because I was the seller in both scenarios. It is the seller's responsibility to honestly answer the disclosure questions to the best of his/her ability whether they are the listing agent or not!
When asked how much to disclose, more seems better than less. Buyers want to know what they are buying. It's best to reveal the known defects ahead of time. Not all buyers will consider some things as defects, and not all defects are known to the sellers! The key is to answer honestly about what the seller knows about their St. Paul home. When known defects are fully disclosed, the seller doesn't have to worry about later discovery and possible problems after the sale of the house.
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