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| Aloha! Maui, Hawaii |
A home warranty, if you don’t know, is a very basic
insurance policy covering appliances and systems like the heating system, water
heater, plumbing, AC, the oven and range, microwave, washer/dryer, well pump,
septic tank pump and system, the refrigerator and some parts of the electrical
system.
A home is an intricate collection of systems that keep you warm or cool, dry and when working these systems allow you to live a whole more comfortable than if you were living in a cave or mud hut.
When buyers negotiate they are buying all the home systems, and sometimes
the seller’s appliances already in the home. These items are all used. But for buyers they're motivated to save the expense of having to buy appliances after the sale is completed.
In Iowa sellers have a duty to disclose their knowledge of the
condition of every major system in the home and if they sell the appliances
those conditions as well. It is this duty to disclose that imposes a risk to the
sellers. Because if the actual condition of the system or appliance ends up
being incorrect, liability may attach. What I mean by this is you can be
successfully sued when the furnace you said was in mint condition turns out to
be a lemon. So if you don't work on furnaces for a living perhaps your declarations about the furnace are simply a guess.
Very few sellers have the knowledge to know what they
are talking about when filling out the disclosure form. And real estate agents
will not help you with filling out this form. That’s because they don’t know
anything about your home’s systems and have limited knowledge of plumbing,
heating, electrical, sewer, septic, roofs and all the other systems that make a
house work. When you ask for help and they say “Just do your best.”; and then walk
away, they are trying to tell you no way are they going to get involved with
the duty to disclose. And they won’t tell you to sit down with a lawyer because
then you will clearly understand the fancy car and nice clothes are just window
dressing.
So what should you do? How can the seller protect
themselves from this imperfect world of real estate?
It is the warranty. The warranty is your backup
plan; it is your insurance against an imperfect world. If the buyers can’t or
won’t, then you (the sellers) should buy the warranty. A $500 home warranty policy is a
hell of a lot cheaper than a lawyer charging $375 per hour.
Now do you get why the sellers should buy the warranty?
Who is Steve Lombardi? Steve Lombardi is a lawyer and a
real estate broker in Iowa. He represents a limited number of buyers for the sheer
pleasure of helping people find just the right home for a good price. His
business is not about quantity, but quality. His clients stay involved in the
search using the Internet to scout out just the right home and at a fair price. He works only with exclusive agreements to represent, so if you don't want to commit yourself to him, he won't to you. He is a lawyer and a real estate broker and so you get the full package for
half what it would otherwise cost you. If you would like his help in finding
the right home and want to do some of your own research, then contact him. If
he isn't helping someone already then you are in luck.
